Lup

I forgot about Soulslinger coming out. That one looks cool.

Gave another chance to Fist of the North Star Lost Paradise and it's fun.
It's basically Yakuza with a Hokuto no Ken skin.
Maybe I'll go back to another playthrough of Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii after that.

I don't know how is it possible to be faithful to both the original timeline and the animated series. Both depict different, contradicting events.
They're not giving a s##t about the canon.

Ah, so it follows the show... Ugh. That totally killed all the hype I had.

Plenty of good stuff on Game Pass.
Might resub once I finish a few games from my backlog.

Mixed feelings about a new Castlevania that isn't the 1999 Demon Castle Wars.

There's a lot of stuff. Will definitely be buying something!

Seeing Assassin's Creed Shadows there makes me happy. Well deserved. 👌🏻

> I see PushSquare's score.

Hell yeah, I'm gonna love it.

@Nighto4

You keep just saying words without actually giving a reason for them.
I already explained why it's closer to the original experience than Zero and you said completely nothing of value to counter that.

K1's story is still the best story to start the series (after the original Y1) and its gameplay is closer to the original Y1 experience for the reasons I've already stated.
Majima Everywhere it's optional and each fight takes only a few minutes at most while Zero's side-game needed to actually level up your skills it's a waste of time.

The people wanting to start with Pirates know that it's not the first game, as most people that started with Y7 know it's not the first one.
It's not a matter of research in this case, it's a matter of being the most recent one and being a new addition to Game Pass.

For newcomers: If you want a 35-50 hours game to know if you like Yakuza, play Zero.

If you want a 20-35 hours game that it's closer to the original Yakuza 1 on PS2 in both story, themes, characters and gameplay than Zero, play Yakuza Kiwami 1.

@Nighto4

Nah, it works.perfectly as a standalone experience.

Not saying K1 is exactly classic Yakuza, just that it's closer to the original experience than Zero is.
My point about the side-game is how it directly affects the main game. In a worse way than Majima Everywhere does in Kiwami 1, therefore making it go even more far away from the original experience we were talking about.

The Majima mode in K2 does spoil Zero, but anyone who can research even a little will know that. It's not even the main game though. And pretty bad in itself.

@Nighto4

Which half? Remind me, then, since you keep saying that.

"...Majima Everywhere from K1 "takes away from the classic Yakuza experience" too, we can do this all day...."

Nor really. It adds. It's optional. You can level up your character normally except for just one style.
In Zero you need money which the best way to get is playing one of the most boring side-games.
"Play". Because it can barely be called a game.

I said ir already. Y1 is the best way to start and Kiwami 1 is the next best thing, in both story, characters amd mechanics.

@Nighto4

I'm not ignoring anything, my man.
And I don't mix Y1 with K1. But there's no easy way to play Y1 right now, so K1 is the next best thing.

"...That last argument is used by a lot of people without giving it much thought. If you don't like a game, you stop playing..."

Yeah, but he said he wanted to give the whole series a go. So skipping games isn't the best advice if you can want to follow the story.
I mantain K1 is the best (easily available) way to start.
Y0 is better when you already know the character, and K1 is more faithful to classic Yakuza style. Y0's whole money is XP was a weird move which takes away from the classic Yakuza experience and basically forces you to play a side-game with one of its characters which is "let's wait".
K1 gives a perfect introduction to the stories, themes, characters and style of the series and also the classic gameplay and level-up system.

@Nighto4

I actually think it's a terrible idea to see Majima's transformation without knowing the character as we all knew it at that time first. That's one of the main reasons to play the games in order.
That is enough for me to say to play Yakuza Zero after 5 just like it was intended.

1/K1's story is a perfect introduction to the series' style.
Zero is great, and I'd say it's an even better game at times, but it has stuff you won't see again in the series for a while, which can make the next games a little disappointing for no fault of their own.

@Decimateh

I'd say half the fun are the substories, which are all little self-contained side-missions.
My advice would be to at least try that part of the side content and see if it's to your liking.
If you don't care about the spoilers from the one before Pirate Yakuza, yeah. But at the same time this one's kinda different from most Yakuza games.
It's really good, my personal GOTY from 2025, but it's easily the crazier, less serious one in the series.

@Nighto4

Yeah, and Zero was meant to be played after Yakuza 1-5. So you will always miss some stuff.
I'd say it's better to miss stuff from only one game than to miss stuff from five.

@FraserG

South America, Argentina specifically. There's quite a few games that aren't available. Slitterhead comes to mind, for example, and a lot of indies and backwards compatible games.

Don't start with Zero, start with Kiwami 1.
Unpopular opinion, yes, but it's shorter, it's the first one after all, and it will give you a good idea of what the series is all about.
If you like Kiwami 1 you'll probably like the whole series.
Zero is amazing and has one of the best stories in the series, but it's like 30-35 hours just for the main story. Could easily go to twice that with side stuff.

Doesn't seem to be available in my region, sadly. Not the first time.

Just give me the same as PC users for the same price.

Turok has the Captain Tsubasa video, which took me completely off guard when reading something about destroying the galaxy. 😂

Black Mid Wukong. 🥁

@Decimateh

Check out the reveal, it looks really good!

They changed the combat to card-based which I know it's not for everyone, but I'm hyped.

@FraserG

They'll mix it up with some big AAA games, a lot indies and some in the middle. I feel like it'll be no problem.
And I don't mind at all if it really is a majority of indies. My most anticipated game or the year so far is Echo Generation 2.

The BlazBlue one looks cool!

Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is my personal GOTY of last year. Pure, unadulterated fun.

Honestly the only thing on Playstation that I'm interested in. This and Rise of the Ronin, because I love Team Ninja.

@FarmDog08

Yeah, same here. I might go back now that it has all the updates to play as a completely different character.

The wand was really fun to use, but maybe a gunslinger.

Haven't been interested in RE for a long time. Not gonna buy it, but the Leon parts look cool.

Great game, hated for no reason. Cool story and characters and really cool combat and builds.

I think 8/10 is fair enough. Maybe a 9?

Nothing for me. I want Carmageddon, but not right now.

I went back in time and I've been replaying the Need for Speed series. On Underground 2 right now.
Also been playing Fable 2.
And the criminally underrated Steambot Chronicles, one of the best games of all time, sadly stuck on the PS2.

@FraserG

Thanks for the answer! I still don't trust 2K too much 😅

We'll have to wait a bit more to be sure about the roster.

Rusev was already in some of the old games, but maybe it was before 2K?

The Showcase is always hit or miss for me, I actually miss the Season Mode or Road to Wrestlemania, but I'll say CM Punk is one wrestler I'm interested in.
I usually just buy them for the MyRise aspect, so I hope it's good.

Will all those 400+ wrestlers be in the base game? 2K always has A LOT of DLCs.

@VeganH

Doubt the number of people interested in "trying it for free" would be the same number of people willing to try it at full price.

I think it's safe to say that some people that tried it for free liked it and bought it, and some people that could have bought it just tried it for free, so the numbers are really hard to get.

Really good numbers for an old game in a console with a much lower player-base.

Romeo is a Dead Man 🔥

Looks good, but I got used to the actual one tbh.

@FraserG

It's not most of the time, but a few days ago I was playing couch co-op with a friend and it literally blocked the most important part. It was a rythm game too 🥲
But if it's game by game, well, can't really complain I guess.

@Shinato2024

That's cool to know! I think I knew but I completely forgot. I'm gonna check it next time I boot the console. Thanks 👍🏻

Do they appear on the top of the screen now so they stop blocking the subtitles?
They even f#ck up some tense moments in some games where you need to watch that little part.

It's not a Day 1 for me, but I am interested.
Still have to play the last one though.

I don't think I'm interested in a new-gen console, no matter if it's Microsoft, Sony or whatever. At least not right now.
I think we'll still be getting games for this one for like 4-5 more years.

Always have to look at the PS score to know if a game it's good or not.

The 6s are probably 9s.

I'm gonna try the character creator. 🫶🏻

It always sucks when that happens, but I'll be honest: zero interest in these two.

@Feffster

Honestly I've been playing their games since the PS3/360 era (mostly AC and Far Cry, but others too) and I liked most of them and loved a few.

Can't say the same about other companies.

Something for Gears and some other games maybe?

Will definitely check it out! Didn't know about this one!
Always at least a little interested in quirky games.

Been replaying some old Need for Speed games. Finished Most Wanted and Carbon (and Own the City too) already, now playing Underground 1.
Also playing Fable 2 for the first time since the direct put me in that mood!

Definitely stole the show. And Xbox's Developer Direct it's the best show format I've seen so far.
Less talk and more games.

I still feel like they're gonna flood us with cars though, but it does sound better.

Just don't buy and that's it.