around the nanosecond it gets released

They get to reuse so many of their existing assets for each release, I think that really helps them streamline their development cycle. Like, they’re gonna be reusing the Hawaii setting from Infinite Wealth for Pirate Yakuza, which will be out in a few weeks, pretty much exactly one year after Infinite Wealth.

I’m OK with this approach. Not every game needs to take 8 years and 100 million dollars to make.

I have played all of the mainline games in the series in the last year, plus Ishin. It’s hard to pick a favorite, and the way they handled the transition to an RPG with the Ichiban games was very impressive. I think my favorite might actually be Ishin. I really enjoyed the feudal Japan setting, and it was a refreshing change from the usual Yakuza setting.

I will also add that the best thing I ever did to enhance my enjoyment of these games was to play them on easy. It allowed me to progress at my own pace and just enjoy the story and the side stuff without getting frustrated by massive boss difficulty spikes, although there were still a few boss fights that took a lot to beat even on easy difficulty.

I’m a 40-something year old man now but your comment gave me flashbacks to my childhood stuff getting destroyed by the kids of my mother’s friends, who she would just let “borrow” my shit.

Sounds like him living 1,000 miles away is a good outcome.

Big cult compound vibes,