As Shenmue 2 celebrates its 20th anniversary, let’s look back on how it made Yakuza possible.
Today BAFTA has announced SEGA’s open-world action-adventure title Shenmue (1999) as the Most Influential Video Game of All Time, receiving the most votes in a public poll.
How does Street Fighter 2 not break the top 21? Literally spearheaded a litany of clones for years and cemented a genre that continues to be relevant to this day. Some were such a blatant rip off that it led to lawsuits (See Fighters History).
Also I agree that BG3 is one of the greatest games of all time and the game with the most depth that I have ever experienced. In fact, it’s probably my favorite game of all time. That said, I have not seen its influence on the industry yet because there is nothing that’s been introduced that is truly comparable to the breadth of the experience imo. I anticipate and hope that it will become one of the most influential games of all-time because playing it has spoiled me.
I don't get it I just played the first game on the ps4 about six months ago and for its time it was probably well regarded for bringing a cinematic feel to gaming but I feel like there were far more engaging RPG's and titles that deserve it more.
For example I find Doom is likely the most influential game of all time for shooters, Mario for platformers the list goes on.
I'm not saying shenmue doesn't deserve praise just was it honestly that good there's a ton of moments in the game where you have to sit the controller down and walk away from the game for an hour for the in game clock to get to 8pm or something there's only so many times I can play space harrier as a distraction
Did Shenmu 3 not end the series? I have the all of the games on PC, but I haven't played them yet.
It did not. It needs 2-3 more games he said to finish, I believe. Heard rumors of 4 but that’s as a little while ago.
Very good point. So influential that the 3rd entry had to be funded by fans (sarcasm). I really enjoyed Shenmue 1 and 2 in 99 and early 2000s, but by the time the 3rd entry was released, I had moved on.
Shouldn't the first shooter to use the standard dual analog control scheme be on the list? As far as I can tell that was Medal of Honor on the PS1 in 1999, although I'm open to correction if someone knows of an earlier game that had it (and no I don't count N64 games where you had to hold two controllers, haha). That control scheme, which was apparently far from obvious to devs at first, has become a default for essentially every 3D game that doesn't have a fixed camera (assuming you aren't using M/K).
My understanding was Alien Resurrection on PS1, but that’s literally me not googling before answering m and just pulling random facts I had stored in the ol’ noggin’
That came out after Medal of Honor, but yeah it was among the first, and it may have been the first to have that as the default (in MOH 1999 it was one of like 6 control scheme options).
Console Creatures writes, "Here's our ranking of the best games in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise.""
Haven’t played all the Yakuza games. my absolute favourite is Yakuza 0. Thumbs up with this list
Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth are a fucking joke and not Yakuza games. These are just superficial turd-based "RPGs" that spawned out of an April Fool's gag only to become full fledged shit shows that ruined the series. And the most pathetic thing is that even as JRPGs goes, these two are not even good.
"But they sold more!!" So did Taylor Swift and Pokemon!!!
So fuck these two games and bring back the real Yakuza.
😂😂😂 They're not even good jrpgs.😂😂
They're just low quality Taylor Swift-like trash for the UwU masses. What a tragedy...
Obviously just an agenda because they changed the combat. They're literally the same under the hood apart from the combat (which is also amazingly done) So yes they're yakuza games.
"They're literally the same under the hood apart from the combat." C'mon, dude. Now you're just saying stupid shit just to win the argument. They changed the actual genre of the game and you're saying that it's literally the same game under the hood? It literally isn't. Even you have to read that and admit that's the dumbest shit you could've said.
What's next? Change Grand Turismo to instead of driving the cars yourself, you use Cards in order to give commands to your car so it can do unique moves in order win races? But as long as you keep the graphics, car customization, licenses, and everything else as is then it's "literally the same under the hood apart from the 'racing'?" 🤦
And this is the train of thought of the UwU generation right there. And another reason why the Yakuza franchise has been ruined.
I rest my case.
Did you miss the part where I said apart from the combat? Because apart from that they literally are.
I've actually really enjoyed Yakuza 7 it doesn't take itself seriously but the story was great. Combat wasn't that fleshed out but it was enjoyable overall.
I get why you'd bate it going from a beat em up to turn based but they kind of explain it with kasuga having brain damage and seeing everything like Dragon Quest again game doesn't take itself seriously at all kind of mirrors earthbound in a lot of its tone.
Again, if this was a one-off I wouldn't have cared. They have a history of doing that. And that's fine. But they instead scraped the original series and started another one in its stead, while using the franchise's history and name recognition as a springboard. That's just fucked up. Why didn't they just made a new IP instead? Why piggyback on something so unique as the Yakuza franchise?
How would it go if they turned Grand Turismo or Tekken or Hitman into a Card Battle game moving forward instead? Not good right?
Now, I understand that Yakuza so happens to fall into a niche category, so the backlash was minimal since the cross pollination with fans of turd-based is unfortunately too much. And you guys drowned us out without a doubt. But now we have no Yakuza, and no game or franchise like it, while you people gained another mediocre JRPG in a sea littered with millions of them. Awesome.
You know how long we waited for Sega to give a damn about the franchise and actually bring it back to the West? Only to now be pushed aside cuz "UwU!! Anime Turd-Based Sells!!" Yeah. Pretty shitty stuff. And, yeah, I'll forever be salty about it.
Again, make this a different IP and bring back the actual Yakuza franchise. There's plenty of ways to evolve the series without having to sacrifice it at the altar of Persona, Anime and all the Monies.
You know it's true.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions…except for this one. I feel like you’re just arguing to argue. You can say you dont like it, but saying they aren’t yakuza games is nonsense. Theyre games based around the happenings of some yakuza-associated characters (and friends) with a very serious story and some very unserious and whacky side content. They honestly changed things up at the perfect time. And have also done a good job of dropping beat em up games often enough to keep crybabies like you busy too. Everyone wins..
I totally agree LAD Yakuza and infinite wealth should have been spun off to its own franchise doesn't mean that they can't still cross or exist in a shared universe. Might be a bad example but look at Mario there's platformers, RPGs, sports racing puzzles etc there's no rules saying your franchise must stay in its lane we could get different games with different branding subtitles etc to differentiate them
I actually like both styles of game however and feel they did the franchise dirty for many years in the west but it's one of those games you have to take whatever they are coming with at face value like I'm not sold on pirate Yakuza at all but project century looks amazing
But at its core I think the franchise is in good hands it's not like the other forgotten franchises Sega has at least they do something with it. Sega technically own shenmue and it took a Kickstarter and backroom deals for 3, Panzer dragoon - dead, as two examples
Shinobi could be and I hear it's coming back but mainly dead until official
Im About half way through infinite wealth and I have to say I'm not liking it as much as I did like a dragon Yakuza.
I hate dodko island what a chore the business management in lad Yakuza was simple easy and could be played on autopilot both are your main way of getting money for weapons mods etc but you have to spend forever on dodko island what a chore u hate it so much.
The game starts off trying to force a romance between kasuga and a previous team member not naming names for spoilers where there was zero romance in Yakuza 7 it was such a wtf moment
And so far I've only played up to dodko island which is killing me but the story isn't interesting at all so far I'm.hoping the pay off comes later.
Looks like a great event upcoming for fans of the genre. Get ready to unleash the dragon at Essence of Fandom: Like a Dragon & Yakuza Experience, a celebration of the series proudly presented by Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio at Lounge 21 in Anime Expo.
I'd rather have Shenmue.
I always felt that Yakuza was the spiriual successor to Shenmue or the natural evolution of Shenmue.
The settings of a Yakuza or a very Japanese-oriented story.
The open-world element with restaurants, convenience stores, and arcades.
Playing arcade games like Space-Harrier and Hang-on (is it me or Space Harrier is always there)
Collecting toy capsule
Takeshi Kitano films and Fist of the North Star too.