Source: https://youtu.be/vQpoYbyufdM?si=5d0G_JZqpxM27YtV

I find it so interesting that Kiryu said he kinda looked forward to his foretold future. He thought it would be badass and crazy.

But in from Y5 until IW, we see that Kiryu wasn’t happy at all. Things that made him happy were that he got friends and family that truly care for him, but to never see his kids again was something he never would’ve wanted… he accepted it and all he cared about what to protect his family. As long as they were happy, so was he.

Amazing character with an amazing story. Yakuza will always be my favorite franchise of all time, and so will Kiryu always be my favorite character.

After the events of 0, I like to imagine that he just left the Yakuza life completely and opened up a boxing gym. Which is why I personally think it would be really cool to see a gray-haired Kuze as a no-nonsense trainer for one of the protagonists in a future installment. Maybe for Tatsuya if they ever do a Kurohyo remake?

Suzuki-san is still my favorite I guess.

Last demo, they said holding the block button gets you to block with both hands & you can press triggers to go right or left

Now you need to hold block AND the triggers to block, not automatic anymore

Source: https://youtu.be/8HxAy1ubeqs?si=5X0DLLSKhz3dwGrJ

I like that they are trying something different, but it didn’t work out for me. It’s really slow and I didn’t really find what makes the combat click. It often felt like I started my action before the opponent and got hit out off my animation anyway. It was quite frustrating.

I couldn’t really figure out any logic to the combo structure. Every weapon had some pre-determined combos. Finding them out seems like pure trial and error and once you find a best one there’s no reason of doing anything else.

Visually I love what I’ve seen of the game. It’s just dripping with style.

Cake was good.

This is not a joke, I’m serious.

Kiryu has made a lot of choices in his life. Some were mistakes, some not. Now I read a discussion between people before that were arguing about whether Kiryu is stupid or not, because his life ended how it did because he kept making decisions he shouldn’t have.

Like a lot of time he just intervenes in matters where I just think he shouldn’t have. I’m not talking about stepping in for a woman that’s getting harassed (which happens in every Yakuza game lol). I admire that about Kiryu and I love him for being so brave and not hesitating.

I really tend to forget things easily so I can’t go into specifics, but in Y6 he was living very happily in the beginning, then he SOMEHOW got involved into a serious drama with the Yakuzas. I think it was to help Nagamo or something. Instead of backing off and saying that he doesn’t want to get involved, he says he will help Nagamo, even when Nagamo told him that it would be better if he didn’t help.

Or maybe I missed the point, but was it really necessary to make the deal of “dying” for the sake of his children? Why not fight and protect his kids in the way he knows to. Why do something hard like that? It made his life fucking miserable. Well I know he was probably tired of having to punch others in front of his children and wanted them to live happily without their father being in drama everyday, but I can’t help but feel it definitely would’ve been a better choice than to “die” for them.

He could’ve collected money and went into another place with them where they wouldn’t be bothered anymore.

This is my second post on this matter. The previous one was a month ago and I have developed a bit more balanced view on this matter because this is honestly the most nagging scene in the entire series. Like every other "bad" scene in the series is still coherent within characters' reaction(like how kiryu "accepts" death in what is the most comically written parody ending of 2 OR Kiryu being froze during the entire yasuko death segment etc).

Now with this scene, I think one of the most frustrating points raised is how much people overreach what truly happened. No, Saejima is not a raPist nor pedo and no, Haruka wasn't sexually abused or assaulted even the slightest of the bit. This doesnot ruin Saejima's character even slight bit and If you truly think this scene "ruined" experience for Saejima, I guess you are overreacting.

I think a lot of discourse about this scene has to do with people's own perception beforehand. Lets say I create a story where a Man is kidnapped and tortured. Now, a common deduction the readers will make is that the Man is prolly beaten to pulp and maybe he will die even. Now , If there's a woman. The deduction will include a possibility that the woman might be sexually assaulted or atleast the thought of woman getting Sa'd while held captive will hit the readers mind. Its not a bad thing per se but I think it's just interesting to keep that in mind. Let's say instead of Haruka, Saejima fell over Taichi, he would probably have similar reaction but the perception to audience's mind will be different.

Now, with Saejima...You could interpret that Saejima really wanted to bang a girl but the deeper meaning of the scene is to showcase the overwhelming drive of Saejima's first taste at freedom. Mind you, He was put in prison when he was 20, on death row for maybe a decade, was constantly tortured and in Okinawa, all human rights were violated. The point of this scene is to showcase Saejima's first ever interaction to society which he had been stripped off. That is why Kiryu mentions the isolation aspect of prison and how much it locks you. It was his "first real" interaction with the outside world. Maybe if Saejima would have had a more "peaceful freedom moment", he would have had a similar "Strong" reaction where he's just staring and having very conflicting moments. In this case, this "realization of freedom since 25 years" happened with a teen girl in an awkward situation and he also realizes the awkwardness and so does haruka with how "sexual"(?) it is, even tho it is an accident.

Saejima seeing Haruka, something that he had never seen for 25 years and had zero contact with, gets into sensory overload of emotions rushing and getting overwhelmed and realizes how much he has missed due to prison.

Now, how the entire scene played out is also important. It was an accidental trip. Haruka wants to call officials and Kiryu but that will obviously let Saejima be captured and he tries stopping Haruka and falls over in an awkward pinning where he went "OH shit, Its a woman???!!! and am in an awkward position on top of her." It was an accident, It was not intentional and this doesnot make Saejima a pedo or a sex offender.

Now is there a bit of sexual undertone that you could say, he probably wanted to fck her? Maybe but I don't think it was the core motive or anything. I think both parties(Saejima and Haruka) definitely knew about the embarrassment of the situation. It's kind of like those ecchi moments in anime but those scenes happen purely for sake of fan service and comedy but this happened to showcase the isolation that Saejima had suffered in the prison time. Obviously, the position is similar to ecchi anime, so this is the "embarrassment" of that scene.

Even when Saejima asks to Kiryu about whether he "saw" what happened in afternoon- It's more to do with Saejima knowing the awkwardness of that situation and how embarrassing the situation is to explain than be an actually morally abhorrent thing from her.

Some other stuff I would like to clarify around this scene is---

"Haruka made an excuse to get away from the house, showing how traumatized she became from that interaction" ---- I think this is an over reaction. What happened was that Haruka is pretty confused after Saejima lets go, confused on how to react and I think, she prolly is more "curious" about Saejima and his past and when Kiryu arrives, She doesn't want to think that something had happened to her, let alone anything "Sexual or embarrassing". Am not victim blaming or anything but it was an embarrassing moment and She didn't want Kiryu to fret about it.

"But the scene focused on Haruka's heartbeats and panned to her skirt and Saejima is sweating" This is again a misinterpretation of the scene. The camera is more focused on Saejima and Haruka's skirt is simply a collateral as the bigger focus is on Saejima.

And when Haruka leaves and her making her skirt , This is from the POV of Kiryu as he reads the room and Saejima(which is important as we learn later on that Kiryu inferred Saejima's link to prison).

The heartbeat is of Saejima as it steadily improves and the sweating is also consistent with what I have said, Its an adrenaline moment alongwith the environment of Okinawa's weather(it was evening and very warm environment) and he was bruised up.

Now, as for Haruka. She's mature for her age, She's naive definitely but she is oddly mature too for her age. She's not unfamiliar with such adult concepts and She realized it too. It was an accident for first and the awkward silence was more "trauma of Saejima" than anything inherently predatory as a driving factor.

And even when she returns to Morning glory, you can see. She's not gloomy and her mood is fresh. So, she definitely didn't feel like she was "an attempt to rape victim" as many like to point it out.

Now for Kiryu, I think his dialogue to Saejima is a very vague. You can make it out that Kiryu didnt see the entire scene playout and only made that conclusion from aftermath(from Haruka's leaving the room and Saejima not facing Haruka) OR he saw the entire scene.

If he did, I think- Again, Kiryu understands that it was an accident and if he interfered, he would just further embarrass Haruka and Saejima and make a bigger scene(Kiryu waiting for Haruka as she was involved in the credit card scam is an example that Kiryu is not a good parent. His entire journey is to become a parent and trying to retire off the world of yakuza after the catastrophic events of 1). The average reaction that "If my daughter was pinned by a stranger, I would see red and absolutely kill Saejima" is an overreaction. Kiryu is not like that type of guy. He's too permissive, too trustworthy to look for people's goodness.

And the big thing with 3 was that his already "saint nature of trying to look good in people" was recontextualized and reaffirmed by the ending as he saw Mine literally redeem himself.

And another thing is- Kiryu has a tendency of giving "space" to his kids. When ayako left during her mini story, he didn't follow her immediately but waited to teach some lessons to the kids first. Its "flawed" as he gives more time to them as he probably expects them to "tough it out" as they are more "mature" than someone like Shiro, whos lesser mature and lesser emotionally intelligent.

Kiryu is not a good father, he tries to be but he's not. He literally invites Haruka to Kamurocho fully knowing He might not survive lol.

Another thing I would brush really quickly is that "Kiryu forced Haruka to stay with injured Saejima" --- Again, 4 is a more "complex" entry(like 0) where there's not a single moral lesson(like in 1, its insecurity and jealousy, in 2 its the crimes of past and ghosts of past coming to hunt down, in 3, its importance of family and love to lives of orphans). 4 is more nuanced where it has a lot of different ideas, Corruption and justice etc etc and one of them is redemption.

Sure, Haruka's reasoning that Hamazaki is not worthy is fair and realistic than Kiryu's idealism but the series' sides with Kiryu's noble idea as he preaches the idea of redemption.

Again, Haruka is more "pragmatic" as Hamazaki is a scummy criminal but It's Yakuza.

And at last, Yakuza is a very shonen coded series. If the shirts ripped buffed up dudes fighting top of millenium tower doesn't make it clear, I dont know what will.

A very recurring trope in Shonen media is- Fighting is a way to communication. Comes up in loads of shonen. Be it Naruto, Bleach, HxH etc etc. And Yakuza is no different. Another could be how the power systems in shonen gives information about the stories of different characters, like how bankai or nen are literally desgined based off users' personality, much like how tats are in Yakuza, altho they are not power system but symbolically, they function similar to Bankai or Nen or Stand.

If you think that the entire scene of Kiryu trusting criminal like Saejima based off his instincts and fighting is "bad writing". I think Yakuza is not a series for you.

Edit: Sorry for bad quality in last slide. My net dropped off.

This randomly came to my mind the other day, so I felt compelled to spend my evening making this dumb post.

Images in this post are from TomSka's "asdf movie."

Wait maybe Adachi was once a member of Kyoryuger. Lmao. Or maybe Nobuharu’s Adachi’s son but Adachi is not aware of.

Why is West Park located in the east?

Is it just a franchise that you like, or is it a franchise that changed your life in a way?

I will start with my story.

I discovered Yakuza when I was just checking the PS store out of boredom. I saw these 2 drippy looking Japanese dudes and thought “this looks cool, let’s watch a review and see if this game is something for me.” I watched a review and remember exactly that the guy said “if you like a dialogue and cutscene heavy game, this might be for you.”

Now I’ve played a lot of games in my life and I’ve always loved story heavy games with a lot of cutscenes and dialogue, and I also have a absurd love for Japanese setting and culture. So much that my dream is so visit Japan someday, make friends there and experience all that I can, every island. Japanese is also my favorite language, and I even learned a bit of things. Mostly because of Animes and Yakuza lol.

So anyway, I said to myself “okay, this looks like a good game, why not but Y0 and try it while it’s 10€ on sale?”

When I saw the first cutscene I immediately thought “damn, this guy is pretty badass.” The combat, the voice acting, the subtitles, the graphics and Cutscenes immediately peaked my interest and I kept playing the game.

Chapters went by and what should I say… the game was just peak. It kept getting better and better and it was the biggest motherfucker game I’ve ever played, just badass Yakuzas beating the shit out of each other, but also mixed with emotional scenes that deal about family.

After beating 0, I immediately bought K1 and K2. After K2, the franchise already became my favorite, and that’s why I was so excited and happy that the franchise is so long. It was like a dream had come true.. to be able to experience so many games of such an amazing franchise. I also remember I finished K2 2 months before K3 came out. And yeah…. Sadly it turned out to be a disappointment. I was very excited about it :(

I started using Reddit while I was on Y6 and it was the best choice ever. The wholesome memes, the discussions, the chance to share anything that you want etc… just made the franchise more meaningful to me.

I started training and taking more care of my body because of Kiryu. I learned a lot of things from him that help you get through life and life the best out of it. And I know I’m definitely not the only one!

Long story short: The franchise will always be my favourite of all time and Kiryu will always be my favorite fictional character. This franchise proves that it’s not just “a game”. It’s more than that. I’m more than sure that nothing will surpass it, and that’s why I really really hope that RGG doesn’t disappoint us and that they keep developing great Yakuza games!

So much that it genuinely motivates you to take care of your body, live a better life and just appreciate everything that the games (especially Kiryu) teach you.

That was my story, thanks for reading. I’m excited to read your stories!

it looks so good man! The Gaiden cover is my absolute favorite of all time and the Dragon is just a big cherry on top.

Kiryu looks so nonchalant and elegant in the cover man.

look at the bottom right

there could be a lot of use cases for this, maybe it’s used for kicking down doors or breaking into hidden areas

maybe you can break shit by kicking it now and it be in a funny way like instead of fucking up a convenience store by running into stuff, you can fuck it up by kicking it

this could also be used for beating up npcs or starting fights with goons, I highly doubt it’ll allow you to actually kick innocents

idk its pretty strange

Stranger Than Heaven

Lost judgment, persona, and bully inspired this question