@pox9127 I pick dead souls than any call of duty and ubisoft game that is not mario rabbits. Even at its worst the game still has that yakuza charm. I hope we get a remake one day.
Like a Dragon Gaiden may have a recognized "official" playthrough time of 9-10 hours, but if somebody heavily invests in the Akame Network and the Coliseum then the final time will probably be somewhere between 17-20 hours.
Judgment was my first dive into the franchise. One of the rare times where I played a game from start to finish without dropping it. Gaiden was the second title that I did that with. Now I’m binge playing Lost Judgment and Ishin now that I’m in the mindset to complete them.
I made the mistake and paused midst Yakuza Zero, we're talking for months x.x Yesterday I was bored and remembered having this gem on my harddrive and played for 5 chapters straight xD It's so good, how could I stop playing in the frist place? 😅
@@midnight5895 i stopped playing yakuza 0 because zelda botw came out lol. unfortunately never went back and had to sell it. I really liked judgment's story and have the sequel and ishin ready to go whenever. I kinda want to jump into kiwami 1 and 2 at some point eventually
Same. I've already clocked well over 50 hours, and I find the sidequest much more engaging than those in the mainline Yakuza games. It's probably because Yagami is so likeable that you just want to spend more time as him as possible.
@@gotinogaden I literally got platinum for Lost Judgment yesterday but I made the mistake of starting NG+ without 100% TownGo completion so I had to redo all side cases AND school stories to get it 🫠 the bike race vs Suoh on Legend was not a good time…
No Kurohyou? Those are one of my favorite games on the franchise, both are pretty cool titles on the franchise, even for being PSP games (also, there are english patches for both games)
My personal rank would be 1.) Lost Judgment 2.) Gaiden 3.) Judgment 4.) Ishin 5.) Fist of the Northstar Never played Kenzan and Dead souls so i cant rank them, personally.
I actually like all the games I listed, but Lost Judgment was peak gaming ( I loved the Kaito Files) for the spin-off category. My personal gripe with Gaiden is the story length, I just wish it was a bit longer, like 1 or 2 more chapters, but overall experience is AMAZING! Judgment is a solid experience and welcoming one, too. I had a few glaring issues, but it's hella solid. Ishin is great. I didn't mind the trooper cards. I'm glad it came to the west. I eventually started slowly loving the game. Fist of the Northstar is surprisingly my introduction to the Yakuza/Like A Dragon franchise. It may be the lowest on the spin-off rank, but I still loved it.
@@TheChicaNugget Gaiden is really good but the lack of attack speed upgrade and u can only play at Sotenbori which makes me quite disappointed ( It's a little overpriced too ). But at least now Joryu can juggle enemies without mod. Lost Judgment is just easily 200h for me, peak gaming and juggle combat. For ishin, i really tried to understand it but couldn't
Lost Judgment single handedly reignited my passion for gaming. I just couldn't find anything to watch, so I checked out the Playstation catalog out of boredom and I watched the story trailer and thought it'd be pretty cool
Yooo thank you for this I almost forgot as well that’s actually my first game as a child bruh our 30’s with the help of gaming really spoils our nostalgia of reliving our childhood gems! 💎
Dead souls is a pretty fun game with how it's just mostly long battles instead of boss fights. Song like Cry..., Return to Nothingess, The Long Battle, both Octopus and Hayashi themes are great. Fotns also has a crazy deep combat system. You can do back combos, juggle goons and bosses and continue juggles after enemies bouncing off of walls. Both these games and also Kenzan are way more fun than Ishin. The grind in (K)Ishin is much worse in than fotns because you can be max level halfway into ng+, while in (K)Ishin you have to grind so many hours for exp for materials. Honestly Kiwami Ishin is the worst spin-off, the original has a much appealing combat and visual design. Especially a lesser grind. I find the original Ishin one of the better RGG games, but not as good as Kenzan.
@@RockMD i mean binary domain isnt really a yakuza spin off it just has the voice cast present in other yakuza games and some japanese exclusive skins that adds akiyama,majima,kiryu and ryuji
Love this review as I just got back into the franchise two years ago after playing the originals as a kid and finished every yakuza game before now downloading both ishin and gaiden… I’m hooked on ishin as my favorite and most slept on game of all time cause…. WOW I’m so in love and play ishin 3-1 in time spent vs gaiden cause although gaiden is amazing… ishin just fulfills my love for ninjas and Samauri game titles and movies. Ishin is a 10/10 for me and wish got more love and marketing ahead of time before release.🎯
great ranking. Pleasantly surprised seeing Ishin 1st because I didn't have the time to play it yet and I'm glad it is that great, I'll have to make time for it
Ishin is good only if you play the original IMO, it’s a grind fest on the remake, and NOT the fun kind. Don’t expect to unlock all the skills esp if you put in 150hrs. You may as well use cheat engine if you want to play the game at max potential
@@bonkgameingishin is NOT only good if you played the original, i haven’t played the original, i picked the game up YESTERDAY and it’s probably my favourite yakuza game, I didn’t grind once throughout the entire 7 chapters i played and only had trouble on 1 boss, its not a grindfest unless you make it one
Played and beat Judgement and Lost Judgement recently and I enjoyed them a lot. RGG studios are really good at putting in a lot of content into their games. Even after you beat the main stories there is still a lot of things to do.
I never touched this series. And when first of the north star came out I bought it day one. Favorite anime ever. I loved this game so much I tried out yakiza kiwami 1. And now I have beaten all of the games in the series. Amazing games.
Wow I had a similar experience, the only difference was, I played judgment after FotNS and then the rest of the series, wasn't ready for yakuza for some reason 🤷🏾♂️.
I think that at this point we should consider that the Judgment saga would be canon along with the yakuza saga in different retrospectives of its installments that include the before and after the events.
I finally played Yakuza 0 this past August. Proceeded to play through the whole series, back to back lol. All I have left as of today are Ishin and the Judgment games. I started Judgment last week but haven't gotten the itch to boot it up again. I think now that I'm playing a title with the same formula but a whole new cast of characters unrelated to the rest of the series, my brain is starting to feel burnt out lol. I'm sure it's fantastic, maybe I just need a break from RGG after 3 months straight of nothing but.
I'll be honest, I'm on the other end of the spectrum: Like a Dragon is a cool and fitting name for the franchise, considering that it's no longer going to focus on Yakuza and its activities. The franchise is moving on, which is something so few companies with recognisable IP names are willing to do. I respect that.
Like a dragon is actually what the series was always called in Japan. Yakuza was just the name lost in translation for the west. IMO it makes a lot more sense to call it that because you don’t even play as yakuza for most of the games.
Yakuza in Japanese means like a dragon… all in all be happy how spoiled we are as Americans… I’m higher than a kite 🪁 smoking and playing ishin and gaiden back to back and all I can say. We made them use yakuza for so long till Biden came in and been stealing everything left and right. It was only a matter of time before our gaming community got so big with support that we finally stole they name!🤣🎯👀
Fist of the Northstar was the best game of 2018 for me easily. The anime is great ,at least the first storyline and the gameplay was good enough that I actually got the Platinum for it. That rhythm was tough as well. It's funny because I liked the club stuff here but hated it in Yakuza 0. I loved all the RPG stuff and have always thought the Yakuza games were always RPGs anyhow. In a lot of ways I think its better than the other spin offs but I've liked FOTNS since that late 80's.
FOTN wasn't better of even equal to God Of War, Marvel's Spider-Man, or Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018. I beat all 4 and enjoyed all 4, but FOTN just ain't up there like that. I'd say Assassin's Creed Odyssey was also far superior. Also the Club thing in FOTN was like a poor mans version of the one from 0 and Kiwami 2 LOL. When I saw that was there I was actually hoping they copy and pasted the 0 1 over. Like you I've been a fan of FOTN for decades, way back to the early 90's I think when we got the OVA. I still need to go back and watch through the entire anime to get the full story, do you remember the live action movie?😂
My take on your Judgment opinions: 1. It is fair to not liking the detective but man this is game you play as a DETECTIVE so you should expect to have some aspect of it. I personally hate Judgment's stealth tailing missions but love the observation aspect of gameplay and other stuff in the series. 2. I do agree on Judgment having a better story on majority than LJ for it is a personal journey of Yagami but the difference at least LJ in focus in the story unlike Judgment that has side cases mixed in the main 3. I disagree calling Kuwana a "weak" character and it is a direct polar oppsite of Yagami. My take is Kuroiwa is the better villain but Kuwana is the better antagonist in the Judgment games
I mean yeah literally on the same places and refferences like...... (Spoilers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kaito and Higashi appearing in Gaiden and mention of Tojo and Omi being disbanded in LJ
I just bought the man who erased his name and its the first one I've played in the series. I also started ishin and I plan to buy it eventually. I loved the man who erased his name. It was a fun game.
I am playing Judgment at the moment ( my first game ever of these genre ) . After lost judgment should I directly play Yakuza 0 or is it safe to for example play Like a Dragon Ishin first or the new Like a Dragon games I think they got a new main character? I was curious what is the best way of them after the Games with Yagami :) . I heard also the old Yakuza games were pretty hard especially some mini games and i am bit afraid of it lol
You could play Ishin next as it's more related story wise its set in the Edo period. The new LAD games are turn based, so I would say play 0 before that. 0 is probably the best in the series. 0-6 would be your best bet. Then the 2 Judgment games. After that you can go turn based with 7 and 8 if that's your thing. Personally I enjoyed these games being brawlers which is a very rare genre these days.
I played Gaiden on GamePass, but I will buy it to keep at some point because I can definitely see myself replaying it. And I'm very tempted by Lost Judgement. I'm just waiting to see it goes on sale/Gamepass.
I totally agree the story for Lost Judgment isn’t as good as the original. I loved the whole serial killer killing off Yakuza members and others. The antagonist is solid though I did enjoy the ones from Lost Judgment as well. Judgment overall is just one of my more favourite ones
Man, I did not enjoy Ishin. I could not remember any character's name from the story besides Ryoma and I found the story to be uninteresting with lots of bloat dialogue. All the substories I did were all shit mmo fetch quest design so I stopped doing them (some of the substories were alright but the fetch quests were a huge turnoff). The game also forces substories onto you by placing them on routes to your next main scenario objective. It was also clear that the wild dancer style was the best style in the game alongside with Swordsman style. I saw no point of Gunman or brawler. Also I believe they should have never added the card system, it was unnecessary and I felt like I never needed to use it and whenever I did, it just ruined the immersion of being in that period of Japan. Lastly, this game feels far from a current gen title compared to other Yakuza current gen games. It had no infinite sprint, fast travel was annoying and the taxi guy was so far away from Terada. I always had to make that tedious 1 minute sprint to the taxi guy to fast travel to the barracks. My personal top 4 spin-off are: 1. Lost Judgement - In my opinion, the best gameplay and Kuwuna was a good villain. 2. Judgement - Gameplay was slower than L Judgement but I liked the story more. 3. Gaiden - Not done playing it but I enjoy it way more than Ishin and gameplay feels like Lost Judgement. 4. Ishin
yagami's combat isn't completely new.. many of his moves are akiyama's, but good camera work and effects make them look different enough the snake style definitely is new (somebody will correct me for sure if i am wrong)
Honestly I don’t get why the existence of FOTNS: Lost Paradise hasn’t gotten people talking about other properties RGG could adapt. Like Popeye. I’d see how they adapt Popeye into a Yakuza style game
Popeye? 😂Nah man. FOTNS works perfectly though. I always felt Sega should've allowed them to continue Streets Of Rage with this combat though. Instead they let some other guys make a 2D SOR4.
@@shizuwolf Other items? Honestly though you might be the only person who wants to see anything Popeye in 2024😂They'd have more success doing literally any other big fighting anime of recent years.
@@ninjanizzle not because I’m a big popeye fan or anything. I just think could have fun with the IP in terms of mechanics. As for other IPs I’d like for them to adapt: Durarara, K Project, Afro Samurai and Jojo part 4 are on the list. And maybe John Wick
@@shizuwolf Right, well I'm only familiar with the last 2 you mentioned, I think those could work. Popeye though is out of date now and would probably just be a big financial loss to the company. If they got the licenses to do Bruce Lee games I think that could go insane.
I'm honestly happy that you were very honest about Lost Judgment because funny enough I like the game I thought the Snake and Boxer style were unique but I can definitely agree with you with how plain the story is and how there where extra stuff that destroyed the experience but ig you can say that's what Judgment is the series itself being a detective it's not everyone's cup of tea but is definitely mine is since imo it keeps the game engaging and I know alot don't like it and I understand that they wanna beat people up I mean that's literally what the whole series about but this type of pace is what I was lookin for in a game I respect this tier list and it was a bitter pill to swallow I can agree with all this.
Expected Rankings: 1. Lost Judgment 2. Judgment 3. Gaiden (Don't see it eclipsing the Judgment games. It feels like an alternative timeline where Yakuza 6 gets a beat-em-up sequel.) 4. Ishin 5. FoTN
For me, 2 and 3 are really closed match. Gaiden was bc of kiryu and the relationship to the franchise and Judgment was bc of the thrilling story of the holey eyes
I have always wanted to play kenzen as well. Hoping we get it in English one day. Doubt its as good as Ishin but would still be a day 1 purchase for me
Spoiler for Yakuza 6 - When he says he thought Kiryu got a great send off in Yakuza 6, it makes me think he didn't leave the game on for the full half hour or so at the end of the game. When the final credits roll and they return to Kiryu on the ground all bloody, then he wakes up.
For me the rankings are: 1) fist of the northstar 2) lost judgement 3) judgement 4) ishin I never understood why people dislike FOTNS game because it's fun asf
Ishin is actually my second favorite game in the franchise (only behind 7). Story is great, combat it great. My only issue is that the villians are super obvious just because they represented by faces of villians of the franchise (with the expection of Mine). But they actually killed Akimoto which was funny as fuck.
There was also two on the on the psp can't remember what they were called. also kenzan id of liked to get this one in English it reminded me of way of the samurai 3
Kiwami 2 is my most favorite as well, followed by 0. But kiwami 1 always have a special place for me as its the first installment I played of the series and since then its always pre ordering the rest
K1 and 2 were both good, but K1 was ruined with the Majima Everywhere system. You should've had the option of switching it off, as it becomes an irritant and obstacle to exploring freely as you could in the original.
Yakuza dead souls being worst? Fist of the North Star on the list? Yakuza 0 not on the list? What the hell is this list? I will say though I do think your take on lost judgment was good, lost judgment was good but the story wasn't as good. Still good just not as good
@@TotallyTubularJonathan just a crazy list, nothing wrong with it! Didn't expect fist of the North star, first time I've actually seen gameplay of it. Looks good if your into the anime
These are some of the hottest takes I’ve heard for this series, definitely wouldn’t put Ishin even near the top, I enjoyed it but it was definitely “mid” and a botched remake wish it was a little bit more faithful to the original. My ranking would be: Lost judgement LAD Gaiden Judgement Ishin Dead souls FotNS
I wouldn't call Gaiden a spin off game at all. It's an important part of the main series. In fact I put off playing Yakuza Like A Dragon so I could play Gaiden first. It's basically Yakuza 6.5. otherwise Fist Of The Northstar is a fantastic game and another one would be great.
in Japanese, Gaiden (外伝) literally means spin-off/side story. Also just looked up the full japanese title and I just found out it's called RGG 7 Gaiden, so a spin-off of yakuza: like a dragon (龍が如く7外伝 名を消した男)
I completed Ishin few weeks ago and I was so disappointed, the gameplay suck like half of the style are bad Brawler: It’s just swordman style that deal less damage Gunslinger: Just spam Square 👍 Wild Dancer and Swordman were the only fun style to play The story was boring only good part was to see some of the characters interact with each others The minigame were fun at least 👍
You were playing gunslinger wrong, brawler is amazing, you just didn’t do komaki training, and the story isn’t bad, i feel like your attention span is bad.
I honestly feel the combat in gaiden is worse compared to 6. Yakuza style is way too slow compared to the other games and the bosses act way more tanky to your hits this time around Edit: 6s bosses were tanky but not the degree this game does it and dragon styles speed isn't hard nerfed
I think its very close to 6. I do agree about some of the bosses being way more tanky. The final boss in particular has just way too many health bars and a few bosses just absorb fully charged kicks like its the basic punch
I feel it's the combat feels worse because of all the hyper armor the bosses and even the normal thugs get when they attack which, if memory serves correctly didn't happen in 6 or didn't happen all that much
Because yakuza 6 bosses only have one health bar which people like me ( who love the combat) was a letdown, Gaiden final boss is an amazing final boss for Kiryu solo story
Hello, I own Judgement and Lost Judgement but haven't played them yet. The only Yakuza I've played is Like A Dragon (Ichiban Reboot). My question is, what should I play next? Judgement, Isshin,, or Gaiden? Note: I'm not going to be able to gob ack and play 0-7 so don't bother advising those, I can get the story from videos.
Ishin:Whenever you want. Ishin takes place in edo period japan with samurai so you don't need to worry about missing out on the story. Gameplay wise it's pretty fun,the combat is smooth and feels nice to play,but the time it takes to get into a fight when it starts takes ages even on ps5. Grind is also pretty insane. Gaiden:Play Gaiden after you've watched the series recaps. It's about kiryu,the guy you play as in the rest of the series. Judgement:Probably the best choice because they are some of the best games in the series with great stories that don't really tie into the main series and super fun gameplay
I played the full series easy the games are grindy , campaign are usually around 20hrs depends on difficulty. But games to get 100% completion usually around the 80 hr mark. I have played the full series ahhah 😅 on of my favourites
Play the judgment series then after that you could watch the videos if you don't bother playing the game then Gaiden and Isshin last or play Isshin then watch and then Gaiden I think of Isshin as a historical theater by Yakuza characters as actors
Project x 2 on 3ds had yakuza dead souls and teaming up with phonnix Wright for their lawyer. I highly recommend to play the game mainly with the crossovers from capcom, namco, sega n nintendo with xenoblade and fire emblem. It was nice to see yakuza interact with chris from resident evil. I would of put project x 2 there for a spin off.
I disagree with Ishin being top of the list - though that's just based on my personal experience. Combat was fun for the first half or so but the later sections of the game felt like an absolute slog with high health enemies, enemies with high damaging attacks - sometimes even instant kill attacks (I played on hard). I get the game probably wanted to me to grind out the blacksmith and do more battle dungeons but I just wasn't having fun doing those so I didn't which made the game tedious.
Even the worst like a dragon game is still better than most games out there.
better than most ubisoft games
Besides dead souls yeah
@pox9127 I pick dead souls than any call of duty and ubisoft game that is not mario rabbits. Even at its worst the game still has that yakuza charm. I hope we get a remake one day.
@@michaelmacorso4479 I wonder how that game is gonna end up in Dragon Engine tho
Ehhh
Like a Dragon Gaiden may have a recognized "official" playthrough time of 9-10 hours, but if somebody heavily invests in the Akame Network and the Coliseum then the final time will probably be somewhere between 17-20 hours.
I did everything except all Mahjong and Pool related things (about 10 things on the completion list) and it took me 31 hours on standard difficulty.
I clicked in at 25 hours before I finished gaiden. Very underrated game in my opinion
Yakuza games are so good that EVERYONE’S tier list is different and is always up for debate 😄.
Judgment was my first dive into the franchise. One of the rare times where I played a game from start to finish without dropping it. Gaiden was the second title that I did that with. Now I’m binge playing Lost Judgment and Ishin now that I’m in the mindset to complete them.
I made the mistake and paused midst Yakuza Zero, we're talking for months x.x Yesterday I was bored and remembered having this gem on my harddrive and played for 5 chapters straight xD It's so good, how could I stop playing in the frist place? 😅
@@midnight5895 i stopped playing yakuza 0 because zelda botw came out lol. unfortunately never went back and had to sell it. I really liked judgment's story and have the sequel and ishin ready to go whenever. I kinda want to jump into kiwami 1 and 2 at some point eventually
Same. I've already clocked well over 50 hours, and I find the sidequest much more engaging than those in the mainline Yakuza games. It's probably because Yagami is so likeable that you just want to spend more time as him as possible.
@@gotinogaden I literally got platinum for Lost Judgment yesterday but I made the mistake of starting NG+ without 100% TownGo completion so I had to redo all side cases AND school stories to get it 🫠 the bike race vs Suoh on Legend was not a good time…
@@FlyingGeneral1992I still planned to platinum Lost Judgment and Judgment. But the droid race made me pulling my hairs out.
No Kurohyou? Those are one of my favorite games on the franchise, both are pretty cool titles on the franchise, even for being PSP games (also, there are english patches for both games)
Or Kenzan either
In the description he says he is only looking at official English releases
@@randomduck8679 oh nevermind then, thanks 🙏
My personal rank would be
1.) Lost Judgment
2.) Gaiden
3.) Judgment
4.) Ishin
5.) Fist of the Northstar
Never played Kenzan and Dead souls so i cant rank them, personally.
Same
I agree 👍
They gonna need to re-release FoTNS LP for other platforms it's been stuck in PS4 for years
Same with dead souls and kenzan
I actually like all the games I listed, but Lost Judgment was peak gaming ( I loved the Kaito Files) for the spin-off category.
My personal gripe with Gaiden is the story length, I just wish it was a bit longer, like 1 or 2 more chapters, but overall experience is AMAZING!
Judgment is a solid experience and welcoming one, too. I had a few glaring issues, but it's hella solid.
Ishin is great. I didn't mind the trooper cards. I'm glad it came to the west. I eventually started slowly loving the game.
Fist of the Northstar is surprisingly my introduction to the Yakuza/Like A Dragon franchise. It may be the lowest on the spin-off rank, but I still loved it.
@@TheChicaNugget Gaiden is really good but the lack of attack speed upgrade and u can only play at Sotenbori which makes me quite disappointed ( It's a little overpriced too ). But at least now Joryu can juggle enemies without mod. Lost Judgment is just easily 200h for me, peak gaming and juggle combat. For ishin, i really tried to understand it but couldn't
Ishin above LJ?
Kuwana one of the weakest antagonists?
What is my man blud SMOKING?
Man felt like the Earth isnt getting warm enough so he decided to drop some of the hottest takes ever.
Honestly judgment and lost judgment are great ways to get into the yakuza series, the gameplay is very fresh
Lost judgment is peak gaming. Best game in the whole series after yakuza 0
Yakuza 0 ending made me cry. Wonderful game with an amazing story.
@@acalibaby808 same, i love yakuza 0
@@acalibaby808And so lovely the story with makoto In Yakuza 0 has a sequel in sub mission of yakuza kiwami 2
Ishin is also very good
Lost Judgment single handedly reignited my passion for gaming. I just couldn't find anything to watch, so I checked out the Playstation catalog out of boredom and I watched the story trailer and thought it'd be pretty cool
How about the Kurohyou games on PSP? They’ve been translated by the fanbase so I definitely recommend checking them out
Yooo thank you for this I almost forgot as well that’s actually my first game as a child bruh our 30’s with the help of gaming really spoils our nostalgia of reliving our childhood gems! 💎
Dead souls is a pretty fun game with how it's just mostly long battles instead of boss fights. Song like Cry..., Return to Nothingess, The Long Battle, both Octopus and Hayashi themes are great. Fotns also has a crazy deep combat system. You can do back combos, juggle goons and bosses and continue juggles after enemies bouncing off of walls. Both these games and also Kenzan are way more fun than Ishin. The grind in (K)Ishin is much worse in than fotns because you can be max level halfway into ng+, while in (K)Ishin you have to grind so many hours for exp for materials. Honestly Kiwami Ishin is the worst spin-off, the original has a much appealing combat and visual design. Especially a lesser grind. I find the original Ishin one of the better RGG games, but not as good as Kenzan.
You also forgot Kurohryou, Binary Domain and Kenzan. (RGG Online can stay forgotten)
@@RockMD i mean binary domain isnt really a yakuza spin off it just has the voice cast present in other yakuza games and some japanese exclusive skins that adds akiyama,majima,kiryu and ryuji
Where's Kurohyou????? The two games has fan translations
Like A Dragon Ishin is in my top three favorite Yakuza games. It doesn’t get nearly as much recognition as it deserves!
And the remaster in 2023 came out at an awkward time and had to compete against Hogwarts Legacy. A summer release would’ve given it a bigger pop.
Love this review as I just got back into the franchise two years ago after playing the originals as a kid and finished every yakuza game before now downloading both ishin and gaiden…
I’m hooked on ishin as my favorite and most slept on game of all time cause…. WOW I’m so in love and play ishin 3-1 in time spent vs gaiden cause although gaiden is amazing… ishin just fulfills my love for ninjas and Samauri game titles and movies.
Ishin is a 10/10 for me and wish got more love and marketing ahead of time before release.🎯
Agree
great ranking. Pleasantly surprised seeing Ishin 1st because I didn't have the time to play it yet and I'm glad it is that great, I'll have to make time for it
Oh get it asap trust me it’s easily my favorite out of all them and for a spin off my top 10 game to play of all time
Ishin is good only if you play the original IMO, it’s a grind fest on the remake, and NOT the fun kind. Don’t expect to unlock all the skills esp if you put in 150hrs. You may as well use cheat engine if you want to play the game at max potential
@@bonkgameingishin is NOT only good if you played the original, i haven’t played the original, i picked the game up YESTERDAY and it’s probably my favourite yakuza game, I didn’t grind once throughout the entire 7 chapters i played and only had trouble on 1 boss, its not a grindfest unless you make it one
Played and beat Judgement and Lost Judgement recently and I enjoyed them a lot. RGG studios are really good at putting in a lot of content into their games. Even after you beat the main stories there is still a lot of things to do.
I never touched this series. And when first of the north star came out I bought it day one. Favorite anime ever. I loved this game so much I tried out yakiza kiwami 1. And now I have beaten all of the games in the series. Amazing games.
Wow I had a similar experience, the only difference was, I played judgment after FotNS and then the rest of the series, wasn't ready for yakuza for some reason 🤷🏾♂️.
I think that at this point we should consider that the Judgment saga would be canon along with the yakuza saga in different retrospectives of its installments that include the before and after the events.
"Great send off, great conclusion to his story"
*breathes in, breathes out*
okay
dude ishin after both judgments is fucking crazy
forgot kurohyou 1 and 2. the newest english patch for 1 makes the game incredibly playble now unlike the original patch
Ah yes the most emotional Yakuza/Lad Game, Like A Dragon: *Gay-den*
Hey, don't make fun. For years I pronounced 'Hyperbole' "High-per-bowl".
I finally played Yakuza 0 this past August. Proceeded to play through the whole series, back to back lol. All I have left as of today are Ishin and the Judgment games. I started Judgment last week but haven't gotten the itch to boot it up again. I think now that I'm playing a title with the same formula but a whole new cast of characters unrelated to the rest of the series, my brain is starting to feel burnt out lol. I'm sure it's fantastic, maybe I just need a break from RGG after 3 months straight of nothing but.
Do you think Gaiden's final boss is one of the best in series ?
I start Gaiden 1st and fall in love for the series
No kurohyou (& sequel) or Kenzan?
And no word on the kaito files? You can't really rank LJ without that part.
Never was interested in Ishin, but i think that’s because IGNs gameplay of it was terrible lol. I might just have to check it out
Love this series!
All the ishin hate is weird asf. Game is one of the most unique in the series with incredible historical fiction
That's exactly why I'm planning on buying it eventually.
*Lost Judgment takes the cake* 🗣🎂🎂🎂
Good vid as always Jonathan
You forgot Kurohyou 1 and 2 for the PSP. It's a great Yakuza spin-off for the handheld.
Hamtaro! I enjoy your tubular tier lists and commentary 🙏 have a good one
I'd love to see a Yakuza Dead Souls remaster w/better controls.
I still can't accept they renamed Yakuza, it was such a baddass name!
well they didn't rename it. It was lost in translation.
@@thewaytodrown8473 I just googled it, damn you were right, it took them long then :)!
I'll be honest, I'm on the other end of the spectrum: Like a Dragon is a cool and fitting name for the franchise, considering that it's no longer going to focus on Yakuza and its activities. The franchise is moving on, which is something so few companies with recognisable IP names are willing to do. I respect that.
Like a dragon is actually what the series was always called in Japan. Yakuza was just the name lost in translation for the west.
IMO it makes a lot more sense to call it that because you don’t even play as yakuza for most of the games.
Yakuza in Japanese means like a dragon… all in all be happy how spoiled we are as Americans… I’m higher than a kite 🪁 smoking and playing ishin and gaiden back to back and all I can say.
We made them use yakuza for so long till Biden came in and been stealing everything left and right.
It was only a matter of time before our gaming community got so big with support that we finally stole they name!🤣🎯👀
No Kurohyou 1&2 and Kenzan?
Man I was wondering the same thing
Gaiden (Not "Gayden") is not a spinoff. It's 100% a mainline entry.
Fist of the Northstar was the best game of 2018 for me easily. The anime is great ,at least the first storyline and the gameplay was good enough that I actually got the Platinum for it. That rhythm was tough as well. It's funny because I liked the club stuff here but hated it in Yakuza 0. I loved all the RPG stuff and have always thought the Yakuza games were always RPGs anyhow. In a lot of ways I think its better than the other spin offs but I've liked FOTNS since that late 80's.
FOTN wasn't better of even equal to God Of War, Marvel's Spider-Man, or Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018. I beat all 4 and enjoyed all 4, but FOTN just ain't up there like that. I'd say Assassin's Creed Odyssey was also far superior. Also the Club thing in FOTN was like a poor mans version of the one from 0 and Kiwami 2 LOL. When I saw that was there I was actually hoping they copy and pasted the 0 1 over. Like you I've been a fan of FOTN for decades, way back to the early 90's I think when we got the OVA. I still need to go back and watch through the entire anime to get the full story, do you remember the live action movie?😂
Also Judgment and especially Lost Judgment own FOTNS. In the end FOTNS was just too grindy, but I'd like to see more though.
Someday maybe SEGA will have the balls to localize Black Panther 1,2 and Kenzan.
Or turn it into Kiwami. I would love that
ranking lost paradise so low and ishin so high is absolutely criminal IMO but i respect the opinion, rating ishin above LJ is absolute insanity tho
My take on your Judgment opinions:
1. It is fair to not liking the detective but man this is game you play as a DETECTIVE so you should expect to have some aspect of it. I personally hate Judgment's stealth tailing missions but love the observation aspect of gameplay and other stuff in the series.
2. I do agree on Judgment having a better story on majority than LJ for it is a personal journey of Yagami but the difference at least LJ in focus in the story unlike Judgment that has side cases mixed in the main
3. I disagree calling Kuwana a "weak" character and it is a direct polar oppsite of Yagami. My take is Kuroiwa is the better villain but Kuwana is the better antagonist in the Judgment games
In the Northstar game, there are the enemies with red hair crest that lick knifes? If they are, I will definitely play this game!
Is judgments in the same universe as yakuza ?
Yeah, both Judgment games are canon within the Yakuza universe.
I mean yeah literally on the same places and refferences like...... (Spoilers)
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Kaito and Higashi appearing in Gaiden and mention of Tojo and Omi being disbanded in LJ
I just bought the man who erased his name and its the first one I've played in the series. I also started ishin and I plan to buy it eventually.
I loved the man who erased his name. It was a fun game.
I got zero, kiwami 1 & 2, yakuza 3, 4, 5, 6 and like a dragon, all on xbox, are these on xbox too?
In my opinion the spin offs have the best final chapters and final boss fights.
Kuwana is a good fight, but the fight against soma was sonething else!
My list
1 Jugment
2 Lost jugment
3 Like a dragon Gaiden
I am playing Judgment at the moment ( my first game ever of these genre ) . After lost judgment should I directly play Yakuza 0 or is it safe to for example play Like a Dragon Ishin first or the new Like a Dragon games I think they got a new main character? I was curious what is the best way of them after the Games with Yagami :) . I heard also the old Yakuza games were pretty hard especially some mini games and i am bit afraid of it lol
You could play Ishin next as it's more related story wise its set in the Edo period. The new LAD games are turn based, so I would say play 0 before that. 0 is probably the best in the series. 0-6 would be your best bet. Then the 2 Judgment games. After that you can go turn based with 7 and 8 if that's your thing. Personally I enjoyed these games being brawlers which is a very rare genre these days.
Why do people keep saying fist of the North Star is a yakuza spinoff when it was a manga and film and predates yakuza by a longshor
Lost Judgment above judgment ? Maybe in terms of gameplay but definitely not story
I played Gaiden on GamePass, but I will buy it to keep at some point because I can definitely see myself replaying it.
And I'm very tempted by Lost Judgement. I'm just waiting to see it goes on sale/Gamepass.
Gaiden is dope, pair up the pervy cabaret girls interaction with some whiskey and you get a very entertaining game.
People always forget the 2 PSP spin off games
I totally agree the story for Lost Judgment isn’t as good as the original. I loved the whole serial killer killing off Yakuza members and others. The antagonist is solid though I did enjoy the ones from Lost Judgment as well.
Judgment overall is just one of my more favourite ones
Maybe Judgment 1 had a better story, but the combat in 2 was way better.
@@ninjanizzle well yeah
where's kurohyō
Didn't play Kenzan and Kurohyou 1+2?
Japanese
What about the black panther series?
Man, I did not enjoy Ishin. I could not remember any character's name from the story besides Ryoma and I found the story to be uninteresting with lots of bloat dialogue. All the substories I did were all shit mmo fetch quest design so I stopped doing them (some of the substories were alright but the fetch quests were a huge turnoff). The game also forces substories onto you by placing them on routes to your next main scenario objective. It was also clear that the wild dancer style was the best style in the game alongside with Swordsman style. I saw no point of Gunman or brawler. Also I believe they should have never added the card system, it was unnecessary and I felt like I never needed to use it and whenever I did, it just ruined the immersion of being in that period of Japan. Lastly, this game feels far from a current gen title compared to other Yakuza current gen games. It had no infinite sprint, fast travel was annoying and the taxi guy was so far away from Terada. I always had to make that tedious 1 minute sprint to the taxi guy to fast travel to the barracks.
My personal top 4 spin-off are:
1. Lost Judgement - In my opinion, the best gameplay and Kuwuna was a good villain.
2. Judgement - Gameplay was slower than L Judgement but I liked the story more.
3. Gaiden - Not done playing it but I enjoy it way more than Ishin and gameplay feels like Lost Judgement.
4. Ishin
yagami's combat isn't completely new.. many of his moves are akiyama's, but good camera work and effects make them look different enough
the snake style definitely is new (somebody will correct me for sure if i am wrong)
The Fist of the North Star game is good if you read the manga or watched the anime.
Lost judgment have the peak combat out of any game easily top tier for me even tho i dont even know how to play it
Honestly I don’t get why the existence of FOTNS: Lost Paradise hasn’t gotten people talking about other properties RGG could adapt. Like Popeye. I’d see how they adapt Popeye into a Yakuza style game
Popeye? 😂Nah man. FOTNS works perfectly though. I always felt Sega should've allowed them to continue Streets Of Rage with this combat though. Instead they let some other guys make a 2D SOR4.
@@ninjanizzle that could work too, but I’m sticking with Popeye and other items on my list
@@shizuwolf Other items? Honestly though you might be the only person who wants to see anything Popeye in 2024😂They'd have more success doing literally any other big fighting anime of recent years.
@@ninjanizzle not because I’m a big popeye fan or anything. I just think could have fun with the IP in terms of mechanics.
As for other IPs I’d like for them to adapt: Durarara, K Project, Afro Samurai and Jojo part 4 are on the list. And maybe John Wick
@@shizuwolf Right, well I'm only familiar with the last 2 you mentioned, I think those could work. Popeye though is out of date now and would probably just be a big financial loss to the company. If they got the licenses to do Bruce Lee games I think that could go insane.
No kurohyou ?
Doing my first ever play through of 0 and omg loving it. I’ve now bought all the games 😂
In my opinion ishin remake is one of the worst.
^^ the ending is anticlimactic imo and has a few flawed systems within it. Not a bad game but it's certainly not LJ lol
@@cinna7814 the boss Superarmor and boss magic ruined it for me honestly. Also the weird giant samurai.
I don’t fw some of the new face swaps. ESPECIALLY takechi.
Gaiden isn't a spin-off tho
It really isn’t
I'm honestly happy that you were very honest about Lost Judgment because funny enough I like the game I thought the Snake and Boxer style were unique but I can definitely agree with you with how plain the story is and how there where extra stuff that destroyed the experience but ig you can say that's what Judgment is the series itself being a detective it's not everyone's cup of tea but is definitely mine is since imo it keeps the game engaging and I know alot don't like it and I understand that they wanna beat people up I mean that's literally what the whole series about but this type of pace is what I was lookin for in a game I respect this tier list and it was a bitter pill to swallow I can agree with all this.
I'll take Judgment over any turn based LAD every time.
Like a Dragon Gayden?
you did not just skip judgments story just to straight up glaze ishins lmfao
Expected Rankings:
1. Lost Judgment
2. Judgment
3. Gaiden (Don't see it eclipsing the Judgment games. It feels like an alternative timeline where Yakuza 6 gets a beat-em-up sequel.)
4. Ishin
5. FoTN
For me, 2 and 3 are really closed match. Gaiden was bc of kiryu and the relationship to the franchise and Judgment was bc of the thrilling story of the holey eyes
Fist Of The North Star. Isn’t a Yakuza game. It’s based off of something completely different and besides all Yakuza games are amazing
I couldn't help but laugh the moment you pronounced GAIden as gayden
No Kurohyou?
how do you feel about kenzen?
I have always wanted to play kenzen as well. Hoping we get it in English one day. Doubt its as good as Ishin but would still be a day 1 purchase for me
Kenzan's got a more fun combat system, cooler atmosphere, no grinding and better story/original characters than Ishin.
Spoiler for Yakuza 6 - When he says he thought Kiryu got a great send off in Yakuza 6, it makes me think he didn't leave the game on for the full half hour or so at the end of the game. When the final credits roll and they return to Kiryu on the ground all bloody, then he wakes up.
His character was still "sent off" in the following scenes and for good reason too. Bringing him back was stupid.
Hamtaro was not for me. I was way too old for it when it hit the US. Great video btw.
it would be cool if they'd bring the Dead Souls games to the west. Id like to play them.
You forgot Kurohyou. The second one wasn't that great, but the first one is awesome
For me the rankings are:
1) fist of the northstar
2) lost judgement
3) judgement
4) ishin
I never understood why people dislike FOTNS game because it's fun asf
It's fun but a bit too grindy
6:15
Dead Souls OST is great it's literally the only good thing about that game lol
I'm waiting for someone to rank the dynasty warrior spinoffs. Berserk musuo , and one piece pirate warriors ect.
I ranked all the one piece warriors games awhile back!
@@TotallyTubularJonathan cool
Ishin is actually my second favorite game in the franchise (only behind 7). Story is great, combat it great. My only issue is that the villians are super obvious just because they represented by faces of villians of the franchise (with the expection of Mine).
But they actually killed Akimoto which was funny as fuck.
Man, Fist of the North Star was brilliant (but a bit repetitive), if it's so low on the list you know all other games are gonna be great.
There was also two on the on the psp can't remember what they were called. also kenzan id of liked to get this one in English it reminded me of way of the samurai 3
you forgot the psp title
Kiwami one and two my favorite so far, I'm on yakuza for trying to get to 5 and 6 so that could change.
Kiwami 2 is my most favorite as well, followed by 0. But kiwami 1 always have a special place for me as its the first installment I played of the series and since then its always pre ordering the rest
K1 and 2 were both good, but K1 was ruined with the Majima Everywhere system. You should've had the option of switching it off, as it becomes an irritant and obstacle to exploring freely as you could in the original.
Yakuza dead souls being worst?
Fist of the North Star on the list?
Yakuza 0 not on the list?
What the hell is this list?
I will say though I do think your take on lost judgment was good, lost judgment was good but the story wasn't as good.
Still good just not as good
As the title implies this is the spin offs lol
@@TotallyTubularJonathan just a crazy list, nothing wrong with it! Didn't expect fist of the North star, first time I've actually seen gameplay of it.
Looks good if your into the anime
Dead Souls is obviously for an audience that isn’t us. We get it. I don’t think it needed 4 mins of saying the same things.
You didnt put kenzan in the list
Japanese only
These are some of the hottest takes I’ve heard for this series, definitely wouldn’t put Ishin even near the top, I enjoyed it but it was definitely “mid” and a botched remake wish it was a little bit more faithful to the original.
My ranking would be:
Lost judgement
LAD Gaiden
Judgement
Ishin
Dead souls
FotNS
I wouldn't call Gaiden a spin off game at all. It's an important part of the main series. In fact I put off playing Yakuza Like A Dragon so I could play Gaiden first. It's basically Yakuza 6.5. otherwise Fist Of The Northstar is a fantastic game and another one would be great.
You have to play like a dragon before gaiden there is a big spoilers for 7 in gaiden
in Japanese, Gaiden (外伝) literally means spin-off/side story. Also just looked up the full japanese title and I just found out it's called RGG 7 Gaiden, so a spin-off of yakuza: like a dragon (龍が如く7外伝 名を消した男)
@TheBlueGoldenHawk gaiden was supposed to be a dlc for 7
@@mahemd2153 makes sense
I completed Ishin few weeks ago and I was so disappointed, the gameplay suck like half of the style are bad
Brawler: It’s just swordman style that deal less damage
Gunslinger: Just spam Square 👍
Wild Dancer and Swordman were the only fun style to play
The story was boring only good part was to see some of the characters interact with each others
The minigame were fun at least 👍
You were playing gunslinger wrong, brawler is amazing, you just didn’t do komaki training, and the story isn’t bad, i feel like your attention span is bad.
@@ksa7621 Gunslinger is just bad, I did the Komaki training but Swordman is just better, and the story is not that interesting
@@killian7660 how is brawler bad if you did komaki training? Gunslinger and brawler are great for setting stuff up
@@ksa7621 What’s the point of using Tiger Drop or Komaki Knockback when you have a better version of those with Swordman ?
@@killian7660 not those, the first one you learn is absolutely broken
Well, personally Ishin is trash, didnt like it at all, even dead souls are more fun, at least you get a laugh
I honestly feel the combat in gaiden is worse compared to 6. Yakuza style is way too slow compared to the other games and the bosses act way more tanky to your hits this time around
Edit: 6s bosses were tanky but not the degree this game does it and dragon styles speed isn't hard nerfed
I think its very close to 6. I do agree about some of the bosses being way more tanky. The final boss in particular has just way too many health bars and a few bosses just absorb fully charged kicks like its the basic punch
I feel it's the combat feels worse because of all the hyper armor the bosses and even the normal thugs get when they attack which, if memory serves correctly didn't happen in 6 or didn't happen all that much
Because yakuza 6 bosses only have one health bar which people like me ( who love the combat) was a letdown, Gaiden final boss is an amazing final boss for Kiryu solo story
your memory is wrong lol@@LHegru
@@thewaytodrown8473 Yeah, thought so. Been a good while since I last played 6
This man out ishin as 1 you’re buggin
My list best to weakest
1 Like A Dragon Gaiden
2 Lost Judgement
3 Like A dragon Ishin
4 Judgement
5 Dead Souls
6 fists of the North star
Hello, I own Judgement and Lost Judgement but haven't played them yet. The only Yakuza I've played is Like A Dragon (Ichiban Reboot). My question is, what should I play next? Judgement, Isshin,, or Gaiden?
Note: I'm not going to be able to gob ack and play 0-7 so don't bother advising those, I can get the story from videos.
Ishin:Whenever you want. Ishin takes place in edo period japan with samurai so you don't need to worry about missing out on the story.
Gameplay wise it's pretty fun,the combat is smooth and feels nice to play,but the time it takes to get into a fight when it starts takes ages even on ps5. Grind is also pretty insane.
Gaiden:Play Gaiden after you've watched the series recaps. It's about kiryu,the guy you play as in the rest of the series.
Judgement:Probably the best choice because they are some of the best games in the series with great stories that don't really tie into the main series and super fun gameplay
I played the full series easy the games are grindy , campaign are usually around 20hrs depends on difficulty. But games to get 100% completion usually around the 80 hr mark.
I have played the full series ahhah 😅 on of my favourites
Play the judgment series then after that you could watch the videos if you don't bother playing the game then Gaiden and Isshin last or play Isshin then watch and then Gaiden
I think of Isshin as a historical theater by Yakuza characters as actors
Judgement has a way better story than Lost Judgement. Yagami just annoyed me because I'm a vengeful bitch who 100% agrees with Kuwana.
Project x 2 on 3ds had yakuza dead souls and teaming up with phonnix Wright for their lawyer. I highly recommend to play the game mainly with the crossovers from capcom, namco, sega n nintendo with xenoblade and fire emblem. It was nice to see yakuza interact with chris from resident evil. I would of put project x 2 there for a spin off.
I disagree with Ishin being top of the list - though that's just based on my personal experience. Combat was fun for the first half or so but the later sections of the game felt like an absolute slog with high health enemies, enemies with high damaging attacks - sometimes even instant kill attacks (I played on hard). I get the game probably wanted to me to grind out the blacksmith and do more battle dungeons but I just wasn't having fun doing those so I didn't which made the game tedious.