[ZaidH]

@DoctorEldritch So I had to look up Emonzaemon, and holy moly, I wasn’t expecting to come across Katanagatari after all this time. That’s a name I last heard back in high school. A classmate used to pester me to watch it and made fun of me for watching One Piece instead 😅 What a blast from the past.

Oh dang, nice point about Kiryu being in prison. Though I doubt the game is set during that period since Daigo looked pretty okay in the trailer, not in the depressive state he was in after Dojima’s death. As for Don Quijote, I just don’t see any clever workarounds for that 😭 They’ll probably either put a Poppo store there or cover it up with a construction barrier.

Thank you so much! Lols yeah, thankfully it’s something slightly positive for once. It’s not the web developer role I was aiming for, but more of a consultancy gig for a popular SaaS platform. Struggling a bit with the role (and my gaming sessions even more so), but hey, better than nothing eh 😅

God, you just reminded me of the Halloween mission in Bully. Younger me was blown away by how the entire school was decorated, pumpkins, costumes, the works, all just for a couple of missions. Thinking about it now, these kinds of world overhauls are so rare these days right? Back in the PS2 era, there was that Driver game, Parallel Lines, where the protagonist goofs around in the old days, gets jailed, and when he’s out, he’s thrown into a modern city with new tech and cars. How cool was that?

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH Same, I think I watched Katanagatari in high school or shortly after. It is a reasonably good anime, though the ending is divisive among fans. If you watch it, I wonder what you will think about the ending. But other than that, the overall story is relatively solid.

Hmm, I am not sure, it is a bit hard to keep track of the timeline at this point. Google says Dark Ties is a prequel to Yakuza 3, and by that time Daigo is already a Chairman. Though it would mean that Mine had a meteoric rise in Yakuza ranks for him to accumulate enough influence and resources to be the main antagonist later on. Probably the game will then have to focus on how exactly he managed that, as rising so fast is unusual.

As for Don Quijote, this one is a complex question, may depend on what exactly the agreement between them and SEGA was. For example, in Yakuza Kiwami 1 and 2, the shop interior is there, but the music is different. Perhaps only music is licensed, or maybe not. We'll have to wait and see...

You deserve every success and victory. Consulting may be your yellow brick road to the Webdev Emerald City, I hope. What is struggling about being a consultant (besides having less time to game, of course)?

Indeed, that was top-notch attention to detail. I also liked how they made all those costumes for every character that corresponded to their inner selves and actually had meaning. Did not end there, either: in winter, you could start snow fights, and there were Christmas decorations around town. This was one of the things I did not like about the ending, even: once you get to the final Endless Summer mission where you can do all the things you missed, the only season you can do it is Summer. Can't start snowball fights or kick leaves around. I wish they had some explanation (like a dream or something ) that would allow you to "visit" other seasons of the game. But oh well. And it was still a great game.

I'd say a similar thing happened to Kiryu, one could say? He did go in for 15 years, though he adapted quickly after getting out.

[ZaidH]

@DoctorEldritch Ah, so it’s victim to the curse of great anime with divisive endings, eh? I’ll put this on my radar.

Yeah, the timeline is a bit confusing here. Though Mine did rise through the ranks pretty quickly as mentioned in Yakuza 3. Not sure about the influence part, but he definitely had an abundance of resources.

I hope they come up with a fictional store that has a jingle like Don Quijote’s 🙏

Thanks again! So the struggle is mostly about interacting with clients and understanding their requirements. It’s my first client-facing role. In my past work, I used to get directions from the folks above me who already had a good understanding of tech, and I rarely interacted with clients directly. All that said, it’s definitely a rewarding experience when the client appreciates the work I’ve done.

Yes! That was seriously so cool. Bully actually gave a real sense of time passing by. I love games like Persona, where the passage of days and seasons is a strong gameplay and story aspect, but they still don’t hit quite like Bully did.

Oh yeah, Kiryu went through something similar, but game-design-wise, not much changed in Yakuza Kiwami imo. In Driver: Parallel Lines, you go from payphones to mobile phones, the whole city transforms, and even the protagonist’s clothing evolves. Sure, Yakuza 0 had that side quest with the guy selling portable phones (a nice bit of foreshadowing for mobiles), but things still felt kind of samey when Kiryu left prison.

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH To be fair, it did follow the manga ending, unlike some anime that catch up to the manga and try to invent their own ending without waiting for the original (Fullmetal Alchemist, looking at you). So it is not just an anime thing here.

Well, he did rise to the top branch, so I thought he got rather influential. It would be interesting to follow how he pulled it off in such a short period of time. Then again, it is unlikely his game will be long, probably similar to The Man Who Erased His Name, I mean, it was originally supposed to be a video only.

Don Quijote is the only store chain in Japan, as far as I know, that has a proper song gingle like this (many have jingles, but not proper songs), so it is a cultural phenomenon. Even if they do invent their own store, it will not be the same. Besides, Jakuza stores and restaurants are usually based on the irl versions. But we'll see what happens; it will be an interesting case study, if nothing else.

Interacting with clients is useful to have in your portfolio, too: with that experience, you will be in a stronger position to be considered for a wider array of roles later on. All the better when they appreciate your efforts: success stories like that are good to be collected and can be brought up in future recruitment interviews.

Speaking of Bully, check this out:

Fan-made, but still. Bully may be old, but its legacy lives on.

Hmm, true, though Kiryu got his first mobile phone in Yakuza Kiwami, Date gave it to him. Kiryu looked somewhat confused:

But yeah, the world itself did not change that much.

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH On a related note, have you seen this?



First Dave the Diver, now Sonic Racing. Ichiban really gets around.

[ZaidH]

@DoctorEldritch Lmao yeah I saw this. Ichiban out on a mission to appear in every Sega game possible. The upcoming Crazy Taxi game better feature Ichiban in it 😄

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH I would not be surprised. I mean, infinite wealth does have that job "Cabbie" that Tomizawa does. It would be easy enough for him to ask Ichiban to help out driving a cab for a while, and there you have it, Crazy Taxi collab. Those two universes would actually gel quite well together.

On an unrelated note, here is more about Bully Online:

If all goes well and nothing happens, then we may see it in the middle of December already.

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidHSEGA just shared the additions they plan for Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties. Kiwami 3 will get bits not present in the original game: Kiryu will get to manage the orphanage more extensively with a range of activities:

And in Dark Ties Mine will get to be...a PR agent-slash-enforcer for his aniki and look after his image? I guess? 😅

Either way, it will be interesting to see all that (though I am still sour about Rikiya). But I am so behind on my Yakuza, the last one I played was LaD, I still need to play Infinite Wealth, The Man Who Erased His Name, and Pirates... Although this game, being one of the older ones, could be played out of sequence.