Yakuza kiwami is pretty balanced up until you unlock tiger drop which absolutely destroys everything that is able to breath. Add that insane move with time for destruction and calming towel and you get to experience 3 second bosses
I'd say Sumo Slap and Komaki Parry are easier to abuse, since they require way less skill and timing to activate. Basically just build up heat with rush or something, back away, switch to Dragon, and you get a free heat move while at a fairly safe distance. And it's one of the highest damage heat moves you have.
@@HerpbI-nugopacbI I mean, we were talking about busted strategies, not fun strategies. Also, it's at least more interactive than "Press Y/Triangle to win" To be honest, none of the Dragon style is particularly fun for me outside of the satisfaction of destroying people in one move.
more like changing this from a yakuza game to an arkham game theres only 1 game franchise/studio that has snapping to the enemy to pummel the ever living shit out of them and thats it. it does make random encounters more bearable and not dreading
Not many people played it so it's understandable, but I think Kiryu in the original Yakuza 2 is his most broken iteration. He has Iron Body Essence like Saejima in Y5 so he can't be staggered while in heat mode, he also has Blue Dragon Spirit from Y3 meaning he can't die as long as he is in heat mode, but probably the most broken thing is The Ultimate Fighter skill that you got by completing the heat action list. In most games you needed the War God Talisman or another piece of gear for unlimited heat but in Y2 it's actually a skill, so technically it's part of his moveset, making it the only game where you can do heat actions without heat gauge and without requiring a piece of equipment. There was nothing stopping you from just standing still and Komaki Reversal'ing everything that came your way, and there was no way to turn it off, once you unlocked it, it was there forever.
Playing it rn and the combat is smooth and crisp like nobodies business. It feels like 5 combat to me. And I played 3 before so I understand now why everyone was confused with that combat. While I actually enjoy that combat in 3 I admit it's a little rough early game. But yea 2 just blows that out of the water because god damn I was not expecting Kiryu to swing that fast ao early. Normally that speed is like locked behind an upgrade but it's just there from the very beginning. And for me heat builds so fast I barely even realize it.
There's a Kiryu kind of broken where he smashes your face in, paralyzing you... and then there's the Yagami kind of broken where you get juggled into the moon on a 100 hit combo... and then there's joon-gi-han stomping the entire game with a 5 MP move.
While I love Kiryu in 5, I think 4 has my favorite move set, it’s the perfect culmination of his skills from 1-3 funneled down into it’s fullest and most metal form.
@@gsifdgsgs Kiryu actually has more moves in 3 it’s just that every attack does very little damage in 3 but in 4 it does a whole lot of damage and makes the game very easy
@@Dmvgold1995 I didn't look at the damage numbers but for me 3 and 4 felt the same. My favourite is still kiryu from 2(ps2). He have less moves from 3 but also he is so damn fast, whole game feels like playing on rush style and I like that
@@gsifdgsgs If you think about this from a console perspective, it makes more sense that 2 on PS2 is faster since the game was worked specifically for those hardware limitations at the time. Meanwhile, they tried prettying everything up in the remakes, which instead created slow-down from the background being loaded in. I'm thinking of trying the originals on emulator, but I hope I can just use the JP voices, because I've heard the American VAs and... yeah. I mean, we had Mark Hamill Majima at one point, but that's more an amusing novelty.
I still miss one move in particular from Y5, and it’s what I call the “Essence of Street Cheese”. The one where Kiryu grates the enemy’s face on the ground.
One thing you forgot to mention about Zero's combat is that how much heat you have also increases the attack speed of Kiryu which I think is what makes it pretty broken as well
I think the only issue with Y0 attack speed being affected by heat level is that it's noticeable, especially with Rush or finishers in general, but not really. Again, it's there and you do see it, but it's really only meaningful in DoD style, where it goes from Brawler's relatively slow speed to DoD's REAL legacy speed.
That was broken in another way, because it incentivized you to NOT use Heat Moves except to finish an enemy or boss. Which is counterpoint to the whole series tbh.
@@joekewl7539 it was so not intuitive to me since I played Kiwami first and there you don’t have any drop in speed. I just cannot bring myself not to use heat actions so I personally think Kiwami’s combat is the best of the two, you also have tiger drop, I think the counters in 0 are awkward to pull off and sometimes not consistent whereas tiger drop in Kiwami is super consistent. (Making it absolutely broken, I think it should decrease in strength the more you use it like an heat action because it does even more than most of the best heat actions).
Absolutely agree. Kiryu was an unstoppable monster in Y5 above all the other games. Making the simple change that his grab combos no longer drain Heat but instead gain Heat just sends him over the edge; no rules, no limits.
Yakuza 0 has a similar bounding strategy for beast. Basically you just get onto 2nd bar, dodge towards an enemy and grab (which picks them up and throws them), and then charging bear hug (block + heavy). You can repeat these over and over. It IS faster in Y5 but more damage in Y0.
I think my favorite part about Y5 Kiryu is that it was the one time his drop kick wasn't completely useless. The flip afterwards is ridiculous yeah, but it's a balance change that I remember immediately being down with as I always felt like that move didn't do enough for how long it left you vulnerable.
After reading the title and before even watching the video I was like “this video is gonna be about Y5 Kiryu not needing heat to do bounding throws isn’t it”
You call it Unbalanced,I call it Peak. Kiryu on 5 is probably at his best form and in peak shape and him being all busted really made the game all the most fun for me. Plus i can see why he feel nerfed in 6,It's because he's past his peak form and shape,but that doesn't stop him from being intimidating and badass asf.
Even Y7 Kiryu looks pretty good. I swear he suffers the Jotaro Kujo problem though, which it's almost as if he gets YOUNGER with each iteration instead of older.
not gonna lie, his 6 version is the least fun to play. the dragon engine being a bit wonky on its' own doesn't help, but kiryu is sluggish and gets interrupted so easily by enemies it is painful until 50%-ish in
Absolutely spot on, Kiryu was a BEAST in Yakuza 5 HAAAAAANDS DOWN. Man was like in his early early 40s red eyed too. Us the game was fantastic, ling story but I loved it, also a shame it was the only one featuring Shinada
I just beat Yakuza:Like a Dragon. It was my first game of the series. I've begun Yakuza 0 and am on Chapter 3 rn. This series is fucking amazing so far. I've never seen your vids before, but you got my sub purely for that "John Yakuza" joke.
@@kolyasmirno9116 I'd never heard of Yakuza before. I'm 28, grew up with a PlayStation 2 system and still had never heard of the series until Like a Dragon came out and was advertised on PS5. As of now, I've beaten Kiwami 1 and 2, Judgement, Lost Judgement and am playing through Like a Dragon:Ishin as well as the Fist of the North Star game that RGG studios created. I love these games man. They are so fuckin' fun.
@@kolyasmirno9116I don't have to imagine it! Y7 was my first, and I loved it enough to grind the platinum. Judgment was my next, and while the platinum is daunting, it's still a great game.
I still think Beast in 0 is the most unbalanced, good for group fights, can heal with the taunt, if at 3rd heat you can block enemy attacks and it prevents any damage and it makes common enemies drop their weapons and they instantly get fear. Best of all, it can basically stunlock single enemies/bosses (even Shakedown) with the bear hug charge at 3rd heat and then you pick up the enemy on the ground which stuns them and prevents them from dodging and you do the dodge grab in beast mode and repeat which does far more damage than the bounding throws, very unbalanced than anything else I've seen plus doesn't take much skill and the window for doing the hug and dodge grab loop is pretty big
Also in Kiwami 2, Kiryu is unable to affected by stuns or flinching and is literally unkillable in extreme heat mode and when you taunt you get the heat bar filled instantly to start extreme heat again (Taunt skill you can buy after doing every bouncer mission). He can literally tank 3 rocket launchers without feeling a thing while still walking up to them and on a tamer note in Kiwami 1 you can spend all heat in beast mode to boost damage then switch to Dragon style and the tiger drops melts everyone, not super unbalanced given you need to get the heat, spend time switching styles and need to time the tiger drop but it still melts anyone
Kiryu in 5 can use double finishers and Finishing grabs after every combo without exhausting heat, also his skills are just. Brutal *Essence of face grating*
I have a feeling why the Finishing Holds don't drain heat in Yakuza 5. Shinada has a similar input for his combo finishers, so maybe if it did drain heat then it would have applied to Shinada as well.
I love the Dragon Engine's graphics but the excessive blocking, combo interruption through blocking, and ragdolling made the combat take a serious hit. Thankfully they gradually perfected it to outdo even Yakuza 0, as Judgement and ESPECIALLY Lost Judgement show. However, I think the combat would have been more than fine if Kiryu's classic Komaki/Dragon martial arts were his main moveset, and his Dragon Heat Mode was like a more complex, fine tuned version of his Red Heat from 5. Then you have all the core Kiryu abilities and skills plus a "just go apeshit" mode. Throw in contextual Heat moves like Dragon Heat Mode has, drop invincibility and replace it with flinch resistance, and it's perfect.
Especially the ragdolling, started playing kiwami 2 a few days ago and everyone goes flying from a single punch. I played judgement a couple years ago and i dont remember it being that bad
I knew the bounding throws in 5 didn't cost heat but I didn't know you could cheese with them this hard, that's nuts! Personally my favorite version of Kiryu is Kiwami 2 man. You get that taunt where you can just fill up your whole heat bar, and you've got the Azure Dragon Spirit so you can't die in heat mode. For me that was the most fun I ever had playing as Kiryu in any Yakuza game
I think the things that balances out Kiwami is the fact you actually have to put in work to even get Kiryu into a powerful state, you really need to learn style switching on the fly to maximize his brokenness and that Kiwami enemies are actually a constant threat all game even if you power level. Seriously damage in general is really high and bosses don't let you just walk up and thrash them.
Personally, i feel like Kiryu is genuinely THE MOST POWERFUL in Dragon Engine titles, just because of how having physics now affects the combat. And having free parry on just Block at the right time. And, my cod, the evolution of Dragon Spirit that is EXTREME HEAT MODE, holy shit. Plus, Bounding Throws are also free to use with no heat, at least that's how i rember it being.
No? not only do grab combos get interrupted by the shit physics, your damage output is ass for a lot of k2 and 6 unless you eat like nikocado, the knockback animation from enemies blocking makes you very vulnerable, and your quickstep is so terrible before you upgrade it and even then it's crappy.
The most unbalanced version of kiryu is his ancestor sakamoto ryoma He literally destroyed soldier who were twice the size of mister shakedown has a gun has sword has tiger drop has an insane invulnerability on a parry And wild dancer is just cheat mode Using heat actions are easy as hell
i found og yakuza 2 kiryu to be the most strongest imo the his heat action damage and his regular attack attack was it was back when there only one double finisher are insane in that game
Original PS2 yakuza 2 Kiryu because of his never ending spinning back combos you learn from komaki, you could zig zag through everyone barely getting touched. They removed it from every game since but it was so much fun and so overpowered. The mission where you get accused of cheating at gambling and fight a whole gang in an enclosed space, I'd barely get touched because I was relentlessly comboing away in every direction but in kiwami 2 you'd get spammed by their attacks instead. Also the boss in the alley, I'd do the same to his minions then throw one to knock the boss down and do a heat move. Even on the hardest difficulty you'd barely take any damage by performing a 100 hit combo in all directions in between smashing the boss with a heat move
Don't forget the slap heat action that can instantly kill bosses. But yeah, the reversal attacks in 2 are so good and so much fun to use. A shame that they nerfed it
@@fattahyahya2106 I also remember a drink that made your heat last longer so it would drop less during heat moves which led to some repeat animations with heat moves lasting three times longer like the kali stick one instead of sweeping the leg at the end he'd start the animation again, it was like he was playing the drums on someones head, the first time I saw it I was crying laughing
@@wullaballoo2642 You mean the Skanda Water that slows down time? You can cheese fights with it, it's pretty broken. Also, Payback Ring + Bloody Binding can be stacked for 5x damage, I've never tried it though because I don't want my fights lasting 5 seconds
@@fattahyahya2106 It's hilarious using that drink with some weapon heat moves, instead of the last big whack he starts the heat move animation all over again
5 does balance out Kiryu's access to OP strategies via the Komaki fights, enemy power modes, and the damage sponges in the Coliseum, though. Like, you pretty much HAVE to loop to do consistent damage, lest the opponent counter or block everything you do, since they all seem to have access to re-blocking. The fact that you can enter Dragon mode and do 0 damage while cornering them is a testament to that. Of course, thank goodness 0 had almost no blocking whatsoever, so you always felt like a fighting god.
Yakuza 0 Kiryu with Limit Breaker Dragon of Dojima lv999 is the most broken. He literally becomes One Punch Man and can endure hits from Mr. Shakedown for like 5 minutes!
There’s this heat action that I always see in no damage runs (haven’t played Y5 yet) where Kiryu goes into Godspeed mode and everytime I see that I’m like No way that this isn’t the strongest Kiryu
I’d say kiryu from Kiwami and Kiwami 2 are the strongest since kiryu is straight out of prison and just beats everyone, even without being in a good fight it just takes a few Majima fights for him to surpass his Yakuza 0 self and in Kiwami 2 he literally beats the Omi alliance and jingwong mafia, although there is that knife scene but he still beats everyone on the Majima construction tower and while being shot can defeat Ryuji Goda and walk away
Kiwami 2 is his peak imo Only a year after kiwami 1 so he’s not too rusty, he beats 2 tigers, he takes on multiple mafias & clans, beats Ryuji handily despite Ryuji being hyped as one of the strongest
Kiwami 2 he can become invulnerable while in heat. But the funny thing is once he's upgraded enough he can get a full heat bar with 1 taunt. Yes, a taunt makes him invulnerable and he cant be killed. This is key in the higher difficulties of the Bouncer missions.
Y0 Kiryu gets a funny “infinite” on Beast style. Get to second bar, dash forward and grab to flip your enemies, until you get lvl 3 then bear hug to reset to lvl 2 this works so well I actually juggled the final boss for the Real Estate side quest for 2 minutes past when the animation was supposed to play where I grab his money and have the revelation. Very funny
Oh man I didn't even realize the bounding throws were that busted haha. I spent the whole game tiger dropping EVERYTHING because 5's AI makes it super easy to bait out a gap closer attack, which are easiest to tiger drop.
Kiwami 2 1hp + extreme heat mode + some insane gear combo with 390 atk(bloody binding, blood caked chain mail and payback ring) + muscle soda(optional) + one extreme heat action where once your finishing blow lands, you mash the absolute shit out of heavy attack. Kills Jo Amon within 10 seconds
For Yakuza 6, kiryu in there is already a powerhouse when fully upgraded. Normal enemies get one shot on legend when you do the running drop kick and that square rush heat action melts enemies.
Yakuza 5 is also where Kiryu does some of his ballsiest stuff like taking on a literal army of yakuza. So it makes sense for that point to be his most cracked.
Excellent, badass video man!! Y5 Kiryu is my fav to play as for a few reasons, and I think this video highlighted why. The only downside is the Y5 Jo Amon fight 😩😩
Attack 3x dodge cancel to the side (you'll always be behind the person) thus being able to hit em and stun for me and keep doing that till eventually they do a bs super armor move
5 is my favourite of the whole series in terms of combat. I love 0/K1's style system and even the dragon engine to an extent, but 5 feels so fucking good
A couple other things to mention is that Yakuza 5 Kiryu also benefits from universal mechanics in Yakuza 5 that are a bit OD. All characters gain the ability to make their finishing blows guard breaks and they are on the first hit in the case of double finisher instead of the second meaning you can actually break guards and get a follow up. Walls are kind of goofy with wall sticks and what not, food bonuses that give you buffs and a second life bar which makes you hard to kill due to a maxed health bar being long and damage never getting high if you have proper equipment and you can actually acquire gear that prevents are the most annoying stuff like preventing dizzy, blocking leg sweeps, blocking blades and what not. Character power in Yakuza 5 is pretty nuts in general.
I just started playing 5 and felt that Kiryu was kinda weak but it's great to hear i can spam bounding throws since I never used them in the other games
Two things that make Yakuza 5 Kiryu the most broken version of him yet >the absurdly easy timing window in performing a tiger drop >combo bounding throws building up heat unstead of consuming it Lmao with these,Dragon Spirit invincibility is just a nice bonus
5 seems to be the most broken game in the serious in general... In a good way! I love the combat in that game. I feel like Saejima was also absolutely busted with his super armor and constant charging attacks. He was unstoppable. Shinada and Akiyama were super weak in comparison 😂 Which I guess makes sense in context of the story? I remember Majima being super strong in Yakuza 0... His one Breaker move where he twirls on the ground got me through all of his fighting challenges and legend difficulty without any issues. Just that one combo.
It's part of why Taro Yakuza is super super strong in Ishin! it's because of how damn strong he was in y5 lol. Then in Yakuza 6, old boy gets old so he has to quickstep-smack everyone.
Tank kiryu in yakuza 0 is op on 1v1 if you add the charm that stops people from geting out of your grabs. you can literaly spam slaming them on the ground by their legs like he is the hulk
In Kiwami there's a way to make Heat Actions deal waaay more damage (even without Time for Destruction) than normal. You can destroy multiple health bars doing that.
of note: in yakuza 5 speedrunning; speedrunners use kiryu's heat mode to 1. Bounce an enemies attack off of themselves- and 2. Use the stun from the enemy bouncing off, to allow them to completely stunlock them for as long as the heat mode lasts.
Kiryu is at his angriest in 5, thus making him even stronger.
I think he's more angrier in 6 story wise but 5 is the peak John Yakuza
He’s angry cause he knows eventually he’s gonna need to sit through Haruka’s segment
Not just angriest,But also has strongest depression in that game,Too.
Kiryu gets a technique that lets him become invincible by simply being angry enough from working 5 months in customer service.
@V three years in the joint
Hard agree, the amount of versatility John Yakuza has in 5 made the combat extremely fun for me and increased my level of enjoyment of the game
Definitely the most fun I had with the series
This is clearly Yondaime, not John Yakuza.
@@mudgepeeman3508 yup yup
What? No, who tfs John Yakuza, that's the most unfunny shit I have ever heard, she is clearly Kiryu Moeka since this is a spin off if Steins Gate
his name is Like A Dragon!!!
Yakuza kiwami is pretty balanced up until you unlock tiger drop which absolutely destroys everything that is able to breath. Add that insane move with time for destruction and calming towel and you get to experience 3 second bosses
Yep pretty much. Haven’t completed it yet but I’m on the final chapter and done all the komeki arts. It really makes every fight a breeze
I'd say Sumo Slap and Komaki Parry are easier to abuse, since they require way less skill and timing to activate. Basically just build up heat with rush or something, back away, switch to Dragon, and you get a free heat move while at a fairly safe distance. And it's one of the highest damage heat moves you have.
@@Some__Guy you really enjoy playing like this?
@@HerpbI-nugopacbI I mean, we were talking about busted strategies, not fun strategies. Also, it's at least more interactive than "Press Y/Triangle to win" To be honest, none of the Dragon style is particularly fun for me outside of the satisfaction of destroying people in one move.
kiwami if u just rush through the game and upgrade with anything u got, then its gonna be boring as ur dmg is too low and even beast cant help u
Honestly Kiryu deserves to be as busted as he is in 5, I consider it good gameplay/story integration lmao
HIS NAME IS JOHN YAKUZA!!!!
@@dunkus5357 HIS NAME IS DAME DAME GUY!
@@guilhermeandrade5903 IT'S BAKAMITAI
his name is tiger drop
@@guilhermeandrade5903 HIS NAME IS JUDGEMENT KAZZY
Dragon Spirit is basically Kiryu using Kaioken and I love it.
more like changing this from a yakuza game to an arkham game theres only 1 game franchise/studio that has snapping to the enemy to pummel the ever living shit out of them and thats it. it does make random encounters more bearable and not dreading
Not many people played it so it's understandable, but I think Kiryu in the original Yakuza 2 is his most broken iteration. He has Iron Body Essence like Saejima in Y5 so he can't be staggered while in heat mode, he also has Blue Dragon Spirit from Y3 meaning he can't die as long as he is in heat mode, but probably the most broken thing is The Ultimate Fighter skill that you got by completing the heat action list. In most games you needed the War God Talisman or another piece of gear for unlimited heat but in Y2 it's actually a skill, so technically it's part of his moveset, making it the only game where you can do heat actions without heat gauge and without requiring a piece of equipment. There was nothing stopping you from just standing still and Komaki Reversal'ing everything that came your way, and there was no way to turn it off, once you unlocked it, it was there forever.
Don't forget the slap heat action you get from Amon that can one shot bosses.
Playing it rn and the combat is smooth and crisp like nobodies business. It feels like 5 combat to me. And I played 3 before so I understand now why everyone was confused with that combat. While I actually enjoy that combat in 3 I admit it's a little rough early game. But yea 2 just blows that out of the water because god damn I was not expecting Kiryu to swing that fast ao early. Normally that speed is like locked behind an upgrade but it's just there from the very beginning. And for me heat builds so fast I barely even realize it.
And Kiryu was able to stun lock a good portion of goons due to how fast he can attack
2 is best game out there anyway. Sadly the HD Remaster wasn't localized 😞 (it's even smoother 😉)
There's a Kiryu kind of broken where he smashes your face in, paralyzing you... and then there's the Yagami kind of broken where you get juggled into the moon on a 100 hit combo...
and then there's joon-gi-han stomping the entire game with a 5 MP move.
and then there's majima murdering everything with a baseball bat
and then you have Majima... who destroys literally everything by breakdancing
Don't forget Y5 Saejima.
Head trauma is too good for its cost
@@Sonicx360isback saijama y5 is just beast style plus it uses the same engine as kiwami
While I love Kiryu in 5, I think 4 has my favorite move set, it’s the perfect culmination of his skills from 1-3 funneled down into it’s fullest and most metal form.
What kiryu have different in 4 compared to 3 🤨. It does have the same moveset?
@@gsifdgsgs Kiryu actually has more moves in 3 it’s just that every attack does very little damage in 3 but in 4 it does a whole lot of damage and makes the game very easy
@@Dmvgold1995 I didn't look at the damage numbers but for me 3 and 4 felt the same. My favourite is still kiryu from 2(ps2). He have less moves from 3 but also he is so damn fast, whole game feels like playing on rush style and I like that
@Bully Maguire no shit sherlock
@@gsifdgsgs If you think about this from a console perspective, it makes more sense that 2 on PS2 is faster since the game was worked specifically for those hardware limitations at the time. Meanwhile, they tried prettying everything up in the remakes, which instead created slow-down from the background being loaded in.
I'm thinking of trying the originals on emulator, but I hope I can just use the JP voices, because I've heard the American VAs and... yeah. I mean, we had Mark Hamill Majima at one point, but that's more an amusing novelty.
bro really becoming the best Yakuza content creator
And now he disappeared
I still miss one move in particular from Y5, and it’s what I call the “Essence of Street Cheese”. The one where Kiryu grates the enemy’s face on the ground.
Yakuza kiwami Legend remix mod
One thing you forgot to mention about Zero's combat is that how much heat you have also increases the attack speed of Kiryu which I think is what makes it pretty broken as well
I think the only issue with Y0 attack speed being affected by heat level is that it's noticeable, especially with Rush or finishers in general, but not really. Again, it's there and you do see it, but it's really only meaningful in DoD style, where it goes from Brawler's relatively slow speed to DoD's REAL legacy speed.
That was broken in another way, because it incentivized you to NOT use Heat Moves except to finish an enemy or boss. Which is counterpoint to the whole series tbh.
On the other hand when he's in first gear he's pathetically slow. Not a fan of that.
@@joekewl7539 it was so not intuitive to me since I played Kiwami first and there you don’t have any drop in speed. I just cannot bring myself not to use heat actions so I personally think Kiwami’s combat is the best of the two, you also have tiger drop, I think the counters in 0 are awkward to pull off and sometimes not consistent whereas tiger drop in Kiwami is super consistent. (Making it absolutely broken, I think it should decrease in strength the more you use it like an heat action because it does even more than most of the best heat actions).
@@edwardsuou yeah, personally I believe that Kiryu in Kiwami is much stronger than 0 simply because his speed is consistent
Should’ve talked about the group heat move that allows him to skip random encounters
Absolutely agree. Kiryu was an unstoppable monster in Y5 above all the other games. Making the simple change that his grab combos no longer drain Heat but instead gain Heat just sends him over the edge; no rules, no limits.
To add on to dragon spirit, you also get a free heat action that knocks out about 4 enemies
There’s two of those iirc essence of terror and the one with a knife
@@TheRealFredbearPlush it's with a katana/sword, called sth like sly wolf I believe
@@lemonismq4642 Nah, it's with a knife.
Yakuza 0 has a similar bounding strategy for beast.
Basically you just get onto 2nd bar, dodge towards an enemy and grab (which picks them up and throws them), and then charging bear hug (block + heavy). You can repeat these over and over.
It IS faster in Y5 but more damage in Y0.
Tbh when I got rush on kiryu in Y0 I never swapped off. I swapped styles constantly with majima though
This is what I did farming Mr. Shakedown early on before I unlocked Legend style.
@@heyjulzdontmakeitbad I think an easier way to farm is drunk Brawler combined with the spicy knife. It deletes health bars
I think the newest addition, Gaiden, has THE most broken kiryu. He can one tap almost any goon with just his rocket boots, it’s insane.
I think my favorite part about Y5 Kiryu is that it was the one time his drop kick wasn't completely useless. The flip afterwards is ridiculous yeah, but it's a balance change that I remember immediately being down with as I always felt like that move didn't do enough for how long it left you vulnerable.
dude you mustve never played 6 Dropkicking into a group will ragdoll like 5 dudes at once its so broken
@@Supermariosupervideo Admittedly didn't bother with 6 after trying out the demo. Combat didn't feel great.
@@megasoniczxx just finished 6 and yeah the combat is really strange
@@megasoniczxx dragon engine games before judgment had bad combat
After reading the title and before even watching the video I was like “this video is gonna be about Y5 Kiryu not needing heat to do bounding throws isn’t it”
You call it Unbalanced,I call it Peak.
Kiryu on 5 is probably at his best form and in peak shape and him being all busted really made the game all the most fun for me.
Plus i can see why he feel nerfed in 6,It's because he's past his peak form and shape,but that doesn't stop him from being intimidating and badass asf.
Even Y7 Kiryu looks pretty good. I swear he suffers the Jotaro Kujo problem though, which it's almost as if he gets YOUNGER with each iteration instead of older.
Yakuza 8 kiryu has the power of sparda now
@@Kratos_Messi7050 your statement aged like milk
not gonna lie, his 6 version is the least fun to play. the dragon engine being a bit wonky on its' own doesn't help, but kiryu is sluggish and gets interrupted so easily by enemies it is painful until 50%-ish in
Absolutely spot on, Kiryu was a BEAST in Yakuza 5 HAAAAAANDS DOWN. Man was like in his early early 40s red eyed too. Us the game was fantastic, ling story but I loved it, also a shame it was the only one featuring Shinada
I mean.... he casually dodged rpg missiles in 5. I think it's safe to say Yakuza 5 Kiryu is peak Kiryu.
I just beat Yakuza:Like a Dragon. It was my first game of the series. I've begun Yakuza 0 and am on Chapter 3 rn. This series is fucking amazing so far. I've never seen your vids before, but you got my sub purely for that "John Yakuza" joke.
Imagine playing 7 first lol.But you do you
@@kolyasmirno9116 I'd never heard of Yakuza before. I'm 28, grew up with a PlayStation 2 system and still had never heard of the series until Like a Dragon came out and was advertised on PS5.
As of now, I've beaten Kiwami 1 and 2, Judgement, Lost Judgement and am playing through Like a Dragon:Ishin as well as the Fist of the North Star game that RGG studios created. I love these games man. They are so fuckin' fun.
@@kolyasmirno9116I don't have to imagine it! Y7 was my first, and I loved it enough to grind the platinum. Judgment was my next, and while the platinum is daunting, it's still a great game.
Kiryu ? You mean Suzuki the taxi driver. Yeah he’s op.
I still think Beast in 0 is the most unbalanced, good for group fights, can heal with the taunt, if at 3rd heat you can block enemy attacks and it prevents any damage and it makes common enemies drop their weapons and they instantly get fear.
Best of all, it can basically stunlock single enemies/bosses (even Shakedown) with the bear hug charge at 3rd heat and then you pick up the enemy on the ground which stuns them and prevents them from dodging and you do the dodge grab in beast mode and repeat which does far more damage than the bounding throws, very unbalanced than anything else I've seen plus doesn't take much skill and the window for doing the hug and dodge grab loop is pretty big
Also in Kiwami 2, Kiryu is unable to affected by stuns or flinching and is literally unkillable in extreme heat mode and when you taunt you get the heat bar filled instantly to start extreme heat again (Taunt skill you can buy after doing every bouncer mission). He can literally tank 3 rocket launchers without feeling a thing while still walking up to them
and on a tamer note in Kiwami 1 you can spend all heat in beast mode to boost damage then switch to Dragon style and the tiger drops melts everyone, not super unbalanced given you need to get the heat, spend time switching styles and need to time the tiger drop but it still melts anyone
Beast in 0 combined with a bicycle. You wreck groups
I really like Kiwami Kiryus move sets and skills so I like to think of that as Kiryu being in his prime
thank you for this information, i shall utilize it once i finish Yakuza 4
Kiryu in 5 can use double finishers and Finishing grabs after every combo without exhausting heat, also his skills are just. Brutal *Essence of face grating*
Man I sure wish Kiryu fixed my back with his moves.
Kazuma isnt in 5. Thats suzuki, silly
Now for the most broken Majima.
It’s just 0. (Although being a god of space and time in Kiwami does come close)
I think Akiyama also deserves credit he took on 50 people himself, in Yakuza 5 me and my friends were generally buffed
Counter hook is significantly easier to land than tiger drop, but it does like half damage
Actually counter hook can do the same damage especially with no heat kiwami counter hook got nerfed
I have a feeling why the Finishing Holds don't drain heat in Yakuza 5. Shinada has a similar input for his combo finishers, so maybe if it did drain heat then it would have applied to Shinada as well.
One phrase not gonna sugar coat it
Meanwhile Yakuza 0 having infinite loop downed Beast grabs
That bounding throw is so bad ass that not a single fuck was given about game's logic. It even go right through bosses god mode.
I love the Dragon Engine's graphics but the excessive blocking, combo interruption through blocking, and ragdolling made the combat take a serious hit. Thankfully they gradually perfected it to outdo even Yakuza 0, as Judgement and ESPECIALLY Lost Judgement show.
However, I think the combat would have been more than fine if Kiryu's classic Komaki/Dragon martial arts were his main moveset, and his Dragon Heat Mode was like a more complex, fine tuned version of his Red Heat from 5. Then you have all the core Kiryu abilities and skills plus a "just go apeshit" mode. Throw in contextual Heat moves like Dragon Heat Mode has, drop invincibility and replace it with flinch resistance, and it's perfect.
Especially the ragdolling, started playing kiwami 2 a few days ago and everyone goes flying from a single punch.
I played judgement a couple years ago and i dont remember it being that bad
Just found you just yesterday and when I saw the amount of yakuza content, just straight up subscribed lol
Same! Very good stuff on this channel!
Saw the title in the notification. Immediately thought of Yakuza 5 hahahaha.
I knew the bounding throws in 5 didn't cost heat but I didn't know you could cheese with them this hard, that's nuts! Personally my favorite version of Kiryu is Kiwami 2 man. You get that taunt where you can just fill up your whole heat bar, and you've got the Azure Dragon Spirit so you can't die in heat mode. For me that was the most fun I ever had playing as Kiryu in any Yakuza game
Would be awesome to see you extend this to every playable character
Meanwhile in Yakuza 0
Lvl 9999 Kiryu: *Breathes*
Everyone: *Dies*
I just think that Kiwami Kiryu is OP as fuck as well, still has the 4 styles, and...*That fucking dragon heat damage bro...*
I think the things that balances out Kiwami is the fact you actually have to put in work to even get Kiryu into a powerful state, you really need to learn style switching on the fly to maximize his brokenness and that Kiwami enemies are actually a constant threat all game even if you power level. Seriously damage in general is really high and bosses don't let you just walk up and thrash them.
Personally, i feel like Kiryu is genuinely THE MOST POWERFUL in Dragon Engine titles, just because of how having physics now affects the combat. And having free parry on just Block at the right time. And, my cod, the evolution of Dragon Spirit that is EXTREME HEAT MODE, holy shit. Plus, Bounding Throws are also free to use with no heat, at least that's how i rember it being.
No? not only do grab combos get interrupted by the shit physics, your damage output is ass for a lot of k2 and 6 unless you eat like nikocado, the knockback animation from enemies blocking makes you very vulnerable, and your quickstep is so terrible before you upgrade it and even then it's crappy.
@@thatitalianlameguy2235 muscle milk
@@thatitalianlameguy2235 quick step is sadistic in 6 maxed out idk what you mean? Kiryu in the de games is beyond broken
Nope, Dragon Engine combat is genuinely awful.
In DE kiryu is fcking slow
Do you like the Tiger Drop?
Would you like the window in which you can land it to be *even more generous?*
THEN COME ON DOWN TO YAKUZA 5!
Was waiting for your next upload, loving these videos, keep up the good work
The most unbalanced version of kiryu is his ancestor sakamoto ryoma
He literally destroyed soldier who were twice the size of mister shakedown has a gun has sword has tiger drop has an insane invulnerability on a parry
And wild dancer is just cheat mode
Using heat actions are easy as hell
i found og yakuza 2 kiryu to be the most strongest imo the his heat action damage and his regular attack attack was it was back when there only one double finisher are insane in that game
6:22 all about that efficiency lmao, good vid
Original PS2 yakuza 2 Kiryu because of his never ending spinning back combos you learn from komaki, you could zig zag through everyone barely getting touched. They removed it from every game since but it was so much fun and so overpowered. The mission where you get accused of cheating at gambling and fight a whole gang in an enclosed space, I'd barely get touched because I was relentlessly comboing away in every direction but in kiwami 2 you'd get spammed by their attacks instead. Also the boss in the alley, I'd do the same to his minions then throw one to knock the boss down and do a heat move. Even on the hardest difficulty you'd barely take any damage by performing a 100 hit combo in all directions in between smashing the boss with a heat move
Don't forget the slap heat action that can instantly kill bosses. But yeah, the reversal attacks in 2 are so good and so much fun to use. A shame that they nerfed it
@@fattahyahya2106 I also remember a drink that made your heat last longer so it would drop less during heat moves which led to some repeat animations with heat moves lasting three times longer like the kali stick one instead of sweeping the leg at the end he'd start the animation again, it was like he was playing the drums on someones head, the first time I saw it I was crying laughing
@@wullaballoo2642 You mean the Skanda Water that slows down time? You can cheese fights with it, it's pretty broken. Also, Payback Ring + Bloody Binding can be stacked for 5x damage, I've never tried it though because I don't want my fights lasting 5 seconds
@@fattahyahya2106 It's hilarious using that drink with some weapon heat moves, instead of the last big whack he starts the heat move animation all over again
The most underrated judgment music in the background in the beginning. Amazing
Nobody talkin' about how Kiryu's combat system in Kiwami lets him set up the craziest of combos
You are one heck of the greatest yakuza youtubers out there
With Gaiden out I have to say.
This video is still accurate.
I think so too, with all his gadgets you can easily take on 100s of enemies but also thats not just his fists so i guess that would be cheating
5 does balance out Kiryu's access to OP strategies via the Komaki fights, enemy power modes, and the damage sponges in the Coliseum, though. Like, you pretty much HAVE to loop to do consistent damage, lest the opponent counter or block everything you do, since they all seem to have access to re-blocking.
The fact that you can enter Dragon mode and do 0 damage while cornering them is a testament to that.
Of course, thank goodness 0 had almost no blocking whatsoever, so you always felt like a fighting god.
Yakuza 0 Kiryu with Limit Breaker Dragon of Dojima lv999 is the most broken. He literally becomes One Punch Man and can endure hits from Mr. Shakedown for like 5 minutes!
just happened to be watching this at 10:52 pm and your ending scared the living shit outta me
There’s this heat action that I always see in no damage runs (haven’t played Y5 yet) where Kiryu goes into Godspeed mode and everytime I see that I’m like No way that this isn’t the strongest Kiryu
Essence of terror. It first came out in Y3 as a revelation and just added to his move set later in the games.
agree, however the tiger drop in kiwami + the beast heat drain move gives kiryu an attack worth like 4 health bars if he is at critical health.
bro when im watching this im literally playing yakuza 5 and i 100% agree when i first say his heat actions i was like Damn kiryu calm down.
I’d say kiryu from Kiwami and Kiwami 2 are the strongest since kiryu is straight out of prison and just beats everyone, even without being in a good fight it just takes a few Majima fights for him to surpass his Yakuza 0 self and in Kiwami 2 he literally beats the Omi alliance and jingwong mafia, although there is that knife scene but he still beats everyone on the Majima construction tower and while being shot can defeat Ryuji Goda and walk away
Kiryu beat 100 man alone, + defeat aizawa when got Wounded
Kiwami 2 is his peak imo
Only a year after kiwami 1 so he’s not too rusty, he beats 2 tigers, he takes on multiple mafias & clans, beats Ryuji handily despite Ryuji being hyped as one of the strongest
Yakuza 5 kiryu was way stronger
@@Leon_S._Kennedy maybe in the cutscenes but not in gameplay
Kiwami 2 he can become invulnerable while in heat. But the funny thing is once he's upgraded enough he can get a full heat bar with 1 taunt. Yes, a taunt makes him invulnerable and he cant be killed. This is key in the higher difficulties of the Bouncer missions.
Y0 Kiryu gets a funny “infinite” on Beast style. Get to second bar, dash forward and grab to flip your enemies, until you get lvl 3 then bear hug to reset to lvl 2 this works so well I actually juggled the final boss for the Real Estate side quest for 2 minutes past when the animation was supposed to play where I grab his money and have the revelation. Very funny
Oh man I didn't even realize the bounding throws were that busted haha. I spent the whole game tiger dropping EVERYTHING because 5's AI makes it super easy to bait out a gap closer attack, which are easiest to tiger drop.
Kiwami 2 1hp + extreme heat mode + some insane gear combo with 390 atk(bloody binding, blood caked chain mail and payback ring) + muscle soda(optional) + one extreme heat action where once your finishing blow lands, you mash the absolute shit out of heavy attack. Kills Jo Amon within 10 seconds
Gameplay Kiryu works so well with his story counterpart. Dude is fucking pissed in that game.
For Yakuza 6, kiryu in there is already a powerhouse when fully upgraded. Normal enemies get one shot on legend when you do the running drop kick and that square rush heat action melts enemies.
Yakuza 5 is also where Kiryu does some of his ballsiest stuff like taking on a literal army of yakuza. So it makes sense for that point to be his most cracked.
Nah, LAD Gaiden Kiryu out here melting health bars with one Quickstep Strike
You can also get the Komaki moves so early in 5 that it makes the rest of Kiryu's part so easy
“No heat bounding throws”
Kid named yakuza kiwami 2
Kiryu:AM SO ANGY THAT YOU TAUNTING ME AMMA DESTROY YOU WITH MY SPIRIT 🐉
Boss:AM SO SOWY PLEASE FORGIVE ME 😨😭
Yakuza 5:edition
I realized Kiryu was broken when he casually side stepped two rockets
This video could have been the awesome No Hit 100 man fight reposted with only "This is why hes the best version" and just shows that. id still agree
Excellent, badass video man!! Y5 Kiryu is my fav to play as for a few reasons, and I think this video highlighted why. The only downside is the Y5 Jo Amon fight 😩😩
Attack 3x dodge cancel to the side (you'll always be behind the person) thus being able to hit em and stun for me and keep doing that till eventually they do a bs super armor move
man wake up and decide to be one of the best yakuza's channel
5 is my favourite of the whole series in terms of combat. I love 0/K1's style system and even the dragon engine to an extent, but 5 feels so fucking good
Kiryu may be the strongest in 5 but Kiwami 2 to me is the most fun version of Kiryu
A couple other things to mention is that Yakuza 5 Kiryu also benefits from universal mechanics in Yakuza 5 that are a bit OD. All characters gain the ability to make their finishing blows guard breaks and they are on the first hit in the case of double finisher instead of the second meaning you can actually break guards and get a follow up. Walls are kind of goofy with wall sticks and what not, food bonuses that give you buffs and a second life bar which makes you hard to kill due to a maxed health bar being long and damage never getting high if you have proper equipment and you can actually acquire gear that prevents are the most annoying stuff like preventing dizzy, blocking leg sweeps, blocking blades and what not. Character power in Yakuza 5 is pretty nuts in general.
To me, the strongest is kiwami ver. Since style change go brrrr. Maybe even, if you count it, 7 kiryu
7 Kiryu is nuts. Literally resists everything except ice, and even hitting his weakness barely even hurts him.
I just started playing 5 and felt that Kiryu was kinda weak but it's great to hear i can spam bounding throws since I never used them in the other games
Just grind the missions you do with Komakis nephew or some shit I forgot how they are related. Then kiryu will be op in the first chapter
@@RXYShogun i finished the game 100% and yeah kiryu is a beast, i wasnt far enough yet.
Two things that make Yakuza 5 Kiryu the most broken version of him yet
>the absurdly easy timing window in performing a tiger drop
>combo bounding throws building up heat unstead of consuming it
Lmao with these,Dragon Spirit invincibility is just a nice bonus
don't forget kiwami's beast mode damage buff with tiger drop & maybe even other buffs
Kiryu nearly spoiled his boss fight moves for when he’s the boss in yakuza 7
Yakuza 3 remastered Kiryu had to fight all those guys while they blocked his every move. He even made a new fighting style for Kanda
5 seems to be the most broken game in the serious in general... In a good way! I love the combat in that game. I feel like Saejima was also absolutely busted with his super armor and constant charging attacks. He was unstoppable.
Shinada and Akiyama were super weak in comparison 😂 Which I guess makes sense in context of the story?
I remember Majima being super strong in Yakuza 0... His one Breaker move where he twirls on the ground got me through all of his fighting challenges and legend difficulty without any issues. Just that one combo.
The only part that limits his power is how addicted to blocking everyone is
I feel kiryu in kiwami is stronger than kiryu in 0 because of that fucking kick in rush that deletes entire healthbars
Of course
It's part of why Taro Yakuza is super super strong in Ishin! it's because of how damn strong he was in y5 lol. Then in Yakuza 6, old boy gets old so he has to quickstep-smack everyone.
Yakuza 5 is truly the moment kiryu stopped sugarcoating
that first minute i was thinking pls say Y5 kiryu over again
im very happy 🤝
If you couldn't abuse bounding throw i don't even wanna think how the amon fight would've gone
great video dunkey, truly loved it.
Tank kiryu in yakuza 0 is op on 1v1 if you add the charm that stops people from geting out of your grabs. you can literaly spam slaming them on the ground by their legs like he is the hulk
In Kiwami there's a way to make Heat Actions deal waaay more damage (even without Time for Destruction) than normal. You can destroy multiple health bars doing that.
And that way would be?
@@Joseph.Talkowski Check a video called "Yakuza Kiwami extreme Heat actions damage", it should have around 1k views.
of note: in yakuza 5 speedrunning; speedrunners use kiryu's heat mode to 1. Bounce an enemies attack off of themselves- and 2. Use the stun from the enemy bouncing off, to allow them to completely stunlock them for as long as the heat mode lasts.
It would be funny if you make a 10 minute video worth of getting stuck in combat in saejima’s city in yak5
“John… Yakuza.”
I made a good choice clicking on your vid my guy.
His Combo Throws without spending Heat makes him broken