I’ve already completed Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami, am currently about 15 hours into Kiwami 2.

I fell in love with the franchise after playing Yakuza 0 and initially wanted to play each game chronologically at least up until Yakuza 7/ Like a dragon, but I keep seeing new games releases and spinoffs that look very interesting, such as Judgement, Ishin, and most recently Pirates in Hawaii.

With my full-time job and other adult responsibilities I can’t possibly hope to get to play all of them, else I’ll never catch up to the current releases.

Are there any titles you suggest I should skip? Are there any “absolutely must play no matter what” titles?

  • sugar_in_your_teaEnglish
    7·
    2 months ago

    I’m on Yakuza 3, and while it’s a heartwarming story so far (I’m about halfway through), I think 0 is the only “absolutely must play no matter what.” I’m probably going to play the rest of the series, but at least from what I’ve read/watched, they’re not anything ground-breaking.

    I’ve been playing one about every year or two, so I think I’m slowly catching up. I’m probably going to give it another year or so before I play Yakuza 4 because the gameplay is so similar between games that I want to give it a break so each title feels fresh.

    But honestly, you shouldn’t be worrying about “catching up,” just play at your own pace and enjoy yourself. My understanding is that 0-6 are completely separate from the “Like a Dragon” series, so if you want to skip ahead, you probably wouldn’t miss much (and of the 0-3 games I’ve played so far, they do a really good job of covering relevant plot points from prior games).