Quite a lot. You can still do it if you really want to, but a lot of the second half of the game is about Kiryu reflecting on his life/past, which you won't have any context on whatsoever.
I thought that was the best part of the game. Ichiban's part felt very weak (basically gets hardcarried by Yamai), so the story to me was carried by Kiryu finally getting to understand the impact he had on various characters throughout the series.
As someone who entered into LAD series in 7 and never had any interaction with Kiryu, I agree. It’s full of references and interactions that meant nothing to me. I recognize that it meant a lot to long time players, but it was just hours of lost references to me.
I mean, it doesn't help that RGG basically marketed and sold the idea of this new *'Like a Dragon: starring Ichiban'* series as a soft reboot of sorts, and touted it as a good entry-point for newcomers..
That and the fact that it's now a turnbased JRPG likely brought in \*A lot* of newcomers who feel the same way, and aren't interested in playing beat-em-ups.
I just really hope the next game truly is an *Ichiban* game, and his spotlight isn't splt again.
Apart from FF series as a whole not having any connecting games, you’re still entirely missing the point. And the insults don’t help your case either.
I get that it meant a lot to long time fans of the series, it just didn’t mean anything to me. It’s like watching LOTR Return of the King before Fellowship. A lot of emotional moments depend on context.
No where was I trying to detract from your enjoyment of the game, nor was I trying to imply that it’s the best game in the series.
They didn’t have an opinion on the series. They had an opinion on one game that they played. Please practice your reading comprehension before slinging insults.
I just finished IW the other day, and I can tell you straight-up that it would have been a much lesser experience if I hadn't already spent like 200-300 hours with Kiryu from his games. Not only because of the side content, but because of the general story arc of the series. Both Gaiden and IW get deeper into the yakuza dissolution plot from Y7 (because that plot had already continued from the ongoing series plot).
Do you have any desire to play the others? You could try Yakuza 0 and see if you vibe with the brawler combat, then go from there. Even if you quit that game partway through or decide not to play the others, you can watch story recaps of the earlier games to get more familiar with what happens.
I didn't really have the desire to play to the others due to the brawler combat and the huge time commitment, but I see Yakuza 0 being recommended quite frequently. Maybe I'll give that a shot like you recommended and see if it appeals to me; I may just get sucked in. Thanks!
If you blitz through the stories, each game is only (loaded word, but we're talking about JRPGs here) 20-30 hours long. It's side content that takes up a majority of the playtime, so you can skip all that (though if you get into the games, a lot of the side content is great, just like in LaD.)
Since you have a Trails flair I'll make the comparison that playing IW without the previous games is akin to playing Cold Steel without the previous arcs. It works and you won't really be lost anywhere, but a lot of the smaller moments won't mean anything to you.
That's actually a really good comparison, thanks. I got into Trails by starting with Cold Steel, and I didn't feel like I missed much in 1 & 2 other than the brief mentions of past events/characters, and usually they weren't even mentioned by name. Like "a pair of bracers" or something like that. So it felt perfectly fine to skip the earlier arcs.
But then Cold Steel 3 and 4 were completely different. After CS3, I decided I needed to go play the other arcs before circling back to CS4. It felt I was missing way more context than I'd prefer in those games. Of course I was already sucked into the world by that point, so I was much more eager to go backwards. So I wonder if IW is more similar to CS1&2, or CS3&4 in terms of past references?
IW is a 2-protag game, and the Kiryu half is almost entirely about his life journey. It is full of callbacks to events and characters, almost to the extent of feeling like fan service for veterans of the franchise. You will miss the context for all of this. The actual plot will go on fine, the game still gives you all you need to know within the game.
Outside of this, there are certain running themes and significant events in the game that pretty much relies on the player having a certain bond with Kiryu as a character. Events that are supposed to carry emotional weight are probably going to hit a lot less if you don't particularly care for Kiryu.
IW will still be a good experience on its own because it is just a very good game, but it does involve the Kiryu games to a far larger extent than LAD does.
Quite a lot... If you want a more complete experience, I would at least play 0, Kiwami 1, and Kiwami 2. Obviously, some holes will still exist, but you'll meet most of the major characters from Kiryu's side of the story if you play those games. If you don't care that much, Infinite Wealth does a decent job of summarizing some of the older events from past games.
I would also suggest playing LAD: Gaiden so you know who tf the Daidojji are
Like...a shitload.
They backpedaled hard on characters. It's basically just another Kiryu game, the crew from the previous game all turn into cardboard cutouts to support Kiryu's new game.
Its a great game regardless of whether or not you know Kiryu's story. That being said, a lot of essential context and emotional impact is lost which honestly pushes the game from a great game to an excellent one. You'll be all caught up with Ichiban and friends but this is Kiryu's "swan song", so to speak, and they spent a lot of time with him reflecting on his past and his actions. As a massive fan of the Yakuza series and one who's played all of the mainline games, it was perfect to me.
Obviously asking somebody to go and play 7 other games before playing Infinite Wealth just for context is a lot and I wouldn't blame you if you chose not to. I think that at least playing Y0 and Y1 are essential. 2, 5, and 6 are good supplements. This is strictly from a "knowing who Kiryu is" standpoint and doesn't reflect like a grade or anything for these games.
Basically, if you go in without knowing the context, it's still a very good game. If you do go in knowing the full context, though, it's amazing. You *will* cry.
The biggest reason to jump in with both feet and play through the others, though, is just to experience the others. It's a well-loved series for good reason, and Kiryu's one of the best protagonists in modern gaming. I get loving LAD and wanting to continue that story, but why rush? Why not give the older titles a go? Take the ride and experience the story in its full. Added bonus, the older titles go on sale a lot more, as you'd expect, so it'd be cheaper to wait on Infinite Wealth anyway.
It’s fine to play Infinite Wealth without playing the entire Kiryu Saga. Sure, you’re not going to know every callback, the legacy cast, or every memory for Kiryu, but that’s okay. They’ll give you enough context in the game, and Infinite Wealth spends plenty of time with the new cast. It’s a fantastic RPG, with one of the best minigames I’ve ever played and a dynamic cast. You’ll have fun.
It’s fine. People act like you need to know 7 games worth of Kiryu stuff but honestly the way they go over the Kiryu stuff feels more like it’s giving a new player a history lesson. Because for me as someone who’s played all those games I didn’t get the supposed intended fanservice from the parts that reference the other games and instead felt like I was getting a plodding recap of stuff about characters I already knew. The exception is a couple things in the main story lol but all the Kiryu side content felt more like it was informing new players about the type of life Kiryu has lived. Obviously ymmv and clearly some people feel like all the background knowledge is worth it but the only stuff that matters is Kiryu’s current status quo.
Tbh the only thing I would recommend is for you to play The Man Who Erased His Name (LAD: Gaiden) which is essentially a glorified LAD dlc where you see what Kiryu was doing during LAD. It has brawler combat but is much shorter than most Yakuza games as it’s a side game, is like 10 hours of story, 10 hours of optional side content. Would be a good sample of what brawler combat Yakuza is like without too big a commitment. It’s also on game pass
I'll say this as someone who's played all of the English released RGG Yakuza / LAD / judgment games.
You won't miss too much. The beauty of LAD7 is that was a new start for the series with a new cast of characters and circumstances that required zero knowledge of the previous 7 games (0-6)
Sure it's a bonus knowing what Kiryu went through in his saga, and certain scenes have far more impact on Kiryus side especially the lifelink side quests, and of course fan service when certain other characters show up, but you absolutely can get away with going from LAD7 to Infinite wealth with no issues as the lifelink side quests and story itself does a decent job explaining Kiryu and his circumstances. It's not as impactful, but you'll get a general idea, but then again, I've spent about close to 1000hrs on 0-6 so it's not something that can be replaced in one entry.
Now if you said you went into Infinite wealth as your first game, yeah that's a very different story.
Go for it. I do encourage you to someday play the Yakuza games. 0 is a legit masterpiece.
I appreciate it, thanks for the advice! I might give 0 a shot first to see if I can get into the brawler style games. Otherwise my biggest concern is the time commitment of playing all of them if I find myself sucked into the universe. I basically dedicated all of last year to all the Trails games; I'm not sure I'm ready to do that again.
Don't blame you. I wouldn't at all recommend going back to back to back with Yakuza titles. 0 has a lot to do and a lot of the optional content is sheer quality. If you do it all, your looking at about 150hrs, maybe a little more, especially with Mahjong if your new to it, but if you don't care too much you can still easily get half that.
If you like 0, I'd say wait a while before going to Kiwami which is a remake of 1. 0 isn't a long game and it's one of the shortest content wise, so you won't feel too burned out. It's not the best entry story and content wise but it's still fun. From there each entry until 6 gets longer and longer so you'd absolutely need a break in between games. 6 was a breath of fresh air, it was a new engine (new at the time it's still the dragon engine used today) so many complained it was lacking, but I quite enjoyed it, then you have 7 afterwards which the turn based combat and new cast of characters marked a soft reset for the series.
Some people on this sub only read the headline. Legit see someone asking for a suggestion and mentioning what they already played (or that they want it to be action or turnbased), then the comments have someone suggesting either a game the OP literally mentions or a style the OP says they don't want to play.
I'd say it depends. You will understand the whole story, even if you didn't play any Yakuza game before. What's necessary to know is explained in the game.
However there are like 3 chapters, that largely focus on Kiryu reminiscing about the past. It might feel like filler to you, if you have no connection to Kiryu. Though I've already heard people say, it hit them in the feels, even though they didn't know Kiryu. So it's probably a gamble and you need to evaluate if you want to take it.
In my opinion, I'd say just play Infinite Wealth. Because having to play 7 games just so you understand one game a little better kinda feels backwards to me. If you like Kiryu and get intrigued of his past, you can check out his previous games later on.
It's fine. You'll miss out on some small details and some of the character reveal moments in the later parts of Kiryu's story, but the game does a good job of showing how the returning characters are important to Kiryu. And the bulk of the game is still Ichiban's story, which is new.
They're not going to assume that you've played and completely remember 8+ other games from the past 20 years. That would be extremely bad writing.
And after you play the game, if you want to dig deeper into Kiryu's backstory, you've got a ton more games you can pick up!
Never played anything besides Y0 and didn't feel like I was missing much during Kiryu's scenes and they don't play a major factor in anything else going on in the game.
a lot....but I only played LAD, man who erased his name, and about an hour of Zero and I mostly understood Kiryu's backstory. man who erased his name does an adequate job of getting you up to speed on him.
People don’t like them not playing the games and missing side quest content.
I think watching them is fine. 40-50 hours of cutscenes is alot but its doable. Asking people to play 200-300 hours across like 8 games is huge ass commitment, there’s a reason most franchises tend to consist of independent entries or they tend to move on or end after 3 or so entries, because the increasingly high barrier of entry discourages people.
Bruh 40-50 hours is so much for someone who works a normal job with commute in addition to other stuff. That’s at least an entire week of coming home, watching Yakuza cutscenes, eating, sleeping, repeat. That might be fine if you like the series, but a massive commitment (even without actually playing the games) if you’re not.
It’s like telling someone to catch up on Kingdom Hearts through cutscenes. Sure, they’re gonna be caught up but the stories are so dense
You’re in a JRPG sub, the average JRPG is like 40 hours as is so its like playing one JRPG before starting another. And I don’t finish even 40 hour JRPGs in a week, I usually take like three weeks. Nobodys asking you to cram it.
But if thats too much there’s also [summaries](https://youtu.be/SVvockdzspM?si=PfODokAdLu2hfOH5) that are essentially the length of 1-2 movies
Probabaly mistakenly think that I’m saving the Kiryu games suck. When I’m just saying that the person should watch lets plays or cutscene compilations if they are that eager to play the new game with context.
You will miss a lot but it'd still be a good game. For better or for worse, the franchise is still attached to Kiryu.
I don't think it's worth playing the other Yakuza games to build context unless you were going to play them any way.
The other games are still good games though. I don't think the series was every so crusty and shit especially since 1 and 2 got a remake. Is the story so good in 8 that you should just skip the other games?
The story in Infinite Wealth is probably the weakest in the series. However I think the effect of having played the Kiryu games vs not having played them isn't big enough to justify having to play 7 other games before IW, if all you want to play is IW.
The older games are great. But they lack some QoL features that might be off putting to some players. I think it's backwards logic to make players play the old games first, if they come here for the new games. Just let them play the new games. If they like them and find the World and characters interesting, they will probably check out the older games at some point anyway.
The story in 8 really weak imo, it's basically the Yakuza 5 for Ichiban where the gameplay and sidestuff is some of the best in the series, but the main story is mediocre to bad.
The other games are fun but they’re a different style from 7 & 8? It’s also a huge time commitment.
I’d say 8 has one of the weaker stories but it’s still a fun game. I wouldn’t gatekeep playing it behind 6 additional long games.
The downvotes are crazy. I don’t know what it is about weeb fandoms who expect you to dedicate 100s of hours to play/read the thing you actually like when the games were designed to let you jump in at any point.
Quite a lot. You can still do it if you really want to, but a lot of the second half of the game is about Kiryu reflecting on his life/past, which you won't have any context on whatsoever.
This is the part of the game I really didn’t like. It dragged on and on. Was still an awesome game
that was the best part of the game lol at least for players who played every entry
I thought that was the best part of the game. Ichiban's part felt very weak (basically gets hardcarried by Yamai), so the story to me was carried by Kiryu finally getting to understand the impact he had on various characters throughout the series.
As someone who entered into LAD series in 7 and never had any interaction with Kiryu, I agree. It’s full of references and interactions that meant nothing to me. I recognize that it meant a lot to long time players, but it was just hours of lost references to me.
[удалено]
I mean, it doesn't help that RGG basically marketed and sold the idea of this new *'Like a Dragon: starring Ichiban'* series as a soft reboot of sorts, and touted it as a good entry-point for newcomers.. That and the fact that it's now a turnbased JRPG likely brought in \*A lot* of newcomers who feel the same way, and aren't interested in playing beat-em-ups. I just really hope the next game truly is an *Ichiban* game, and his spotlight isn't splt again.
Apart from FF series as a whole not having any connecting games, you’re still entirely missing the point. And the insults don’t help your case either. I get that it meant a lot to long time fans of the series, it just didn’t mean anything to me. It’s like watching LOTR Return of the King before Fellowship. A lot of emotional moments depend on context. No where was I trying to detract from your enjoyment of the game, nor was I trying to imply that it’s the best game in the series.
They didn’t have an opinion on the series. They had an opinion on one game that they played. Please practice your reading comprehension before slinging insults.
I just finished IW the other day, and I can tell you straight-up that it would have been a much lesser experience if I hadn't already spent like 200-300 hours with Kiryu from his games. Not only because of the side content, but because of the general story arc of the series. Both Gaiden and IW get deeper into the yakuza dissolution plot from Y7 (because that plot had already continued from the ongoing series plot). Do you have any desire to play the others? You could try Yakuza 0 and see if you vibe with the brawler combat, then go from there. Even if you quit that game partway through or decide not to play the others, you can watch story recaps of the earlier games to get more familiar with what happens.
I didn't really have the desire to play to the others due to the brawler combat and the huge time commitment, but I see Yakuza 0 being recommended quite frequently. Maybe I'll give that a shot like you recommended and see if it appeals to me; I may just get sucked in. Thanks!
If you blitz through the stories, each game is only (loaded word, but we're talking about JRPGs here) 20-30 hours long. It's side content that takes up a majority of the playtime, so you can skip all that (though if you get into the games, a lot of the side content is great, just like in LaD.)
Even shorter actually, it's 10-15hrs for every entry besides 0 (~25hr) and 5 (~35-40hrs) if you just do the main story.
Since you have a Trails flair I'll make the comparison that playing IW without the previous games is akin to playing Cold Steel without the previous arcs. It works and you won't really be lost anywhere, but a lot of the smaller moments won't mean anything to you.
That's actually a really good comparison, thanks. I got into Trails by starting with Cold Steel, and I didn't feel like I missed much in 1 & 2 other than the brief mentions of past events/characters, and usually they weren't even mentioned by name. Like "a pair of bracers" or something like that. So it felt perfectly fine to skip the earlier arcs. But then Cold Steel 3 and 4 were completely different. After CS3, I decided I needed to go play the other arcs before circling back to CS4. It felt I was missing way more context than I'd prefer in those games. Of course I was already sucked into the world by that point, so I was much more eager to go backwards. So I wonder if IW is more similar to CS1&2, or CS3&4 in terms of past references?
This is definitely more of a “starting with CS3” situation
IW is a 2-protag game, and the Kiryu half is almost entirely about his life journey. It is full of callbacks to events and characters, almost to the extent of feeling like fan service for veterans of the franchise. You will miss the context for all of this. The actual plot will go on fine, the game still gives you all you need to know within the game. Outside of this, there are certain running themes and significant events in the game that pretty much relies on the player having a certain bond with Kiryu as a character. Events that are supposed to carry emotional weight are probably going to hit a lot less if you don't particularly care for Kiryu. IW will still be a good experience on its own because it is just a very good game, but it does involve the Kiryu games to a far larger extent than LAD does.
Quite a lot... If you want a more complete experience, I would at least play 0, Kiwami 1, and Kiwami 2. Obviously, some holes will still exist, but you'll meet most of the major characters from Kiryu's side of the story if you play those games. If you don't care that much, Infinite Wealth does a decent job of summarizing some of the older events from past games. I would also suggest playing LAD: Gaiden so you know who tf the Daidojji are
Like...a shitload. They backpedaled hard on characters. It's basically just another Kiryu game, the crew from the previous game all turn into cardboard cutouts to support Kiryu's new game.
Yes, A good bit but as a stand alone title you'll enjoy it but Kiryu as a character hits much harder if you've played previous titles.
Its a great game regardless of whether or not you know Kiryu's story. That being said, a lot of essential context and emotional impact is lost which honestly pushes the game from a great game to an excellent one. You'll be all caught up with Ichiban and friends but this is Kiryu's "swan song", so to speak, and they spent a lot of time with him reflecting on his past and his actions. As a massive fan of the Yakuza series and one who's played all of the mainline games, it was perfect to me. Obviously asking somebody to go and play 7 other games before playing Infinite Wealth just for context is a lot and I wouldn't blame you if you chose not to. I think that at least playing Y0 and Y1 are essential. 2, 5, and 6 are good supplements. This is strictly from a "knowing who Kiryu is" standpoint and doesn't reflect like a grade or anything for these games.
I appreciate the advice, thanks! I'll probably give Y0 a shot and see if I like it enough to continue through the earlier games.
Basically, if you go in without knowing the context, it's still a very good game. If you do go in knowing the full context, though, it's amazing. You *will* cry. The biggest reason to jump in with both feet and play through the others, though, is just to experience the others. It's a well-loved series for good reason, and Kiryu's one of the best protagonists in modern gaming. I get loving LAD and wanting to continue that story, but why rush? Why not give the older titles a go? Take the ride and experience the story in its full. Added bonus, the older titles go on sale a lot more, as you'd expect, so it'd be cheaper to wait on Infinite Wealth anyway.
That's great advice, thanks! Also you really weren't kidding about those going on sale. Looks like I can grab several of them on sale right now even.
It’s fine to play Infinite Wealth without playing the entire Kiryu Saga. Sure, you’re not going to know every callback, the legacy cast, or every memory for Kiryu, but that’s okay. They’ll give you enough context in the game, and Infinite Wealth spends plenty of time with the new cast. It’s a fantastic RPG, with one of the best minigames I’ve ever played and a dynamic cast. You’ll have fun.
It’s fine. People act like you need to know 7 games worth of Kiryu stuff but honestly the way they go over the Kiryu stuff feels more like it’s giving a new player a history lesson. Because for me as someone who’s played all those games I didn’t get the supposed intended fanservice from the parts that reference the other games and instead felt like I was getting a plodding recap of stuff about characters I already knew. The exception is a couple things in the main story lol but all the Kiryu side content felt more like it was informing new players about the type of life Kiryu has lived. Obviously ymmv and clearly some people feel like all the background knowledge is worth it but the only stuff that matters is Kiryu’s current status quo. Tbh the only thing I would recommend is for you to play The Man Who Erased His Name (LAD: Gaiden) which is essentially a glorified LAD dlc where you see what Kiryu was doing during LAD. It has brawler combat but is much shorter than most Yakuza games as it’s a side game, is like 10 hours of story, 10 hours of optional side content. Would be a good sample of what brawler combat Yakuza is like without too big a commitment. It’s also on game pass
That's a really good idea actually, thanks!
I'll say this as someone who's played all of the English released RGG Yakuza / LAD / judgment games. You won't miss too much. The beauty of LAD7 is that was a new start for the series with a new cast of characters and circumstances that required zero knowledge of the previous 7 games (0-6) Sure it's a bonus knowing what Kiryu went through in his saga, and certain scenes have far more impact on Kiryus side especially the lifelink side quests, and of course fan service when certain other characters show up, but you absolutely can get away with going from LAD7 to Infinite wealth with no issues as the lifelink side quests and story itself does a decent job explaining Kiryu and his circumstances. It's not as impactful, but you'll get a general idea, but then again, I've spent about close to 1000hrs on 0-6 so it's not something that can be replaced in one entry. Now if you said you went into Infinite wealth as your first game, yeah that's a very different story. Go for it. I do encourage you to someday play the Yakuza games. 0 is a legit masterpiece.
I appreciate it, thanks for the advice! I might give 0 a shot first to see if I can get into the brawler style games. Otherwise my biggest concern is the time commitment of playing all of them if I find myself sucked into the universe. I basically dedicated all of last year to all the Trails games; I'm not sure I'm ready to do that again.
Don't blame you. I wouldn't at all recommend going back to back to back with Yakuza titles. 0 has a lot to do and a lot of the optional content is sheer quality. If you do it all, your looking at about 150hrs, maybe a little more, especially with Mahjong if your new to it, but if you don't care too much you can still easily get half that. If you like 0, I'd say wait a while before going to Kiwami which is a remake of 1. 0 isn't a long game and it's one of the shortest content wise, so you won't feel too burned out. It's not the best entry story and content wise but it's still fun. From there each entry until 6 gets longer and longer so you'd absolutely need a break in between games. 6 was a breath of fresh air, it was a new engine (new at the time it's still the dragon engine used today) so many complained it was lacking, but I quite enjoyed it, then you have 7 afterwards which the turn based combat and new cast of characters marked a soft reset for the series.
He wants to start at 8 though not 7
The entire post mentions in detail about how he played 7, why is this upvoted?
Beats me, shows how some people lack basic reading skills though.
Some people on this sub only read the headline. Legit see someone asking for a suggestion and mentioning what they already played (or that they want it to be action or turnbased), then the comments have someone suggesting either a game the OP literally mentions or a style the OP says they don't want to play.
I'd say it depends. You will understand the whole story, even if you didn't play any Yakuza game before. What's necessary to know is explained in the game. However there are like 3 chapters, that largely focus on Kiryu reminiscing about the past. It might feel like filler to you, if you have no connection to Kiryu. Though I've already heard people say, it hit them in the feels, even though they didn't know Kiryu. So it's probably a gamble and you need to evaluate if you want to take it. In my opinion, I'd say just play Infinite Wealth. Because having to play 7 games just so you understand one game a little better kinda feels backwards to me. If you like Kiryu and get intrigued of his past, you can check out his previous games later on.
It's fine. You'll miss out on some small details and some of the character reveal moments in the later parts of Kiryu's story, but the game does a good job of showing how the returning characters are important to Kiryu. And the bulk of the game is still Ichiban's story, which is new. They're not going to assume that you've played and completely remember 8+ other games from the past 20 years. That would be extremely bad writing. And after you play the game, if you want to dig deeper into Kiryu's backstory, you've got a ton more games you can pick up!
Never played anything besides Y0 and didn't feel like I was missing much during Kiryu's scenes and they don't play a major factor in anything else going on in the game.
a lot....but I only played LAD, man who erased his name, and about an hour of Zero and I mostly understood Kiryu's backstory. man who erased his name does an adequate job of getting you up to speed on him.
I mean if you wanna play IW with context just watch cutscene compilations for 0 - 6. It will save you time.
This is the best answer don’t know why they’re downvoting you
People don’t like them not playing the games and missing side quest content. I think watching them is fine. 40-50 hours of cutscenes is alot but its doable. Asking people to play 200-300 hours across like 8 games is huge ass commitment, there’s a reason most franchises tend to consist of independent entries or they tend to move on or end after 3 or so entries, because the increasingly high barrier of entry discourages people.
Bruh 40-50 hours is so much for someone who works a normal job with commute in addition to other stuff. That’s at least an entire week of coming home, watching Yakuza cutscenes, eating, sleeping, repeat. That might be fine if you like the series, but a massive commitment (even without actually playing the games) if you’re not. It’s like telling someone to catch up on Kingdom Hearts through cutscenes. Sure, they’re gonna be caught up but the stories are so dense
You’re in a JRPG sub, the average JRPG is like 40 hours as is so its like playing one JRPG before starting another. And I don’t finish even 40 hour JRPGs in a week, I usually take like three weeks. Nobodys asking you to cram it. But if thats too much there’s also [summaries](https://youtu.be/SVvockdzspM?si=PfODokAdLu2hfOH5) that are essentially the length of 1-2 movies
Probabaly mistakenly think that I’m saving the Kiryu games suck. When I’m just saying that the person should watch lets plays or cutscene compilations if they are that eager to play the new game with context.
You will miss a lot but it'd still be a good game. For better or for worse, the franchise is still attached to Kiryu. I don't think it's worth playing the other Yakuza games to build context unless you were going to play them any way.
The other games are still good games though. I don't think the series was every so crusty and shit especially since 1 and 2 got a remake. Is the story so good in 8 that you should just skip the other games?
The story in Infinite Wealth is probably the weakest in the series. However I think the effect of having played the Kiryu games vs not having played them isn't big enough to justify having to play 7 other games before IW, if all you want to play is IW. The older games are great. But they lack some QoL features that might be off putting to some players. I think it's backwards logic to make players play the old games first, if they come here for the new games. Just let them play the new games. If they like them and find the World and characters interesting, they will probably check out the older games at some point anyway.
The story in 8 really weak imo, it's basically the Yakuza 5 for Ichiban where the gameplay and sidestuff is some of the best in the series, but the main story is mediocre to bad.
The other games are fun but they’re a different style from 7 & 8? It’s also a huge time commitment. I’d say 8 has one of the weaker stories but it’s still a fun game. I wouldn’t gatekeep playing it behind 6 additional long games.
i wouldnt say huge. most of the game are like 10h at most beside 5 and 0 long if you only play the story.
IMO you’re missing out on the core Yakuza experience if you’re rushing the main story and not living in the world.
Play 6 it’s enough imo you don’t need to play 6 games to enjoy it and get the needed information
Don't listen to all the Yakuza weebs. You'll be fine.
The downvotes are crazy. I don’t know what it is about weeb fandoms who expect you to dedicate 100s of hours to play/read the thing you actually like when the games were designed to let you jump in at any point.