The Yakuza/Like a Dragon Franchise

[Ruki]

Chitose's voice actress is the same as Yuffie's from FF7 Remake/Rebirth. I thought she sounded familiar! She's my favorite already.

[Ruki]

I have just spent the last two days playing the Sujimon game. It's so good. I just beat Joker, so now I just need to level up my 'mons to around 50 and I'm golden!

 

Edit: do NOT do this if you are not progressing the story. There's a real battle against level 31 enemies. I was level 23. 

[Ruki]

Chapter 8, this game is getting dangerously close to making me cry.

Spoiler

As Kiryu, going and collecting all your past memories. He's been around for 10 games! There's so much history there 

 

[Chris2K]

Just finished Infinite Wealth, spoilers for the story and post credits.

Spoiler

The split teams were fun, and gave me an opportunity to do my favourite video game activity - level grinding - which made both final battles fairly easy. Unfortunately Joongi and Zhao came into the parties far too late to make them viable team members because they were so far behind in levels and job rankings to everyone else.

I wasn't aware Daniel Dae Kim was voicing Ebina, and, as much as I love him, his performance was so underwhelming. The animation for Ebina during his final battle speech showed him moving around like a mad man, almost Majima-esque, yet Kim's delivery was almost monotone and didn't provide any kind of energy to build up the literal final boss battle. Being able to play as Kiryu with the three Tojo legends shortly before that was wonderful though. (UPDATE: the Japanese dub does indeed have Ebina raving like a mad man during that speech, so it makes such little sense for DDK to voice him like he's having a friendly chat).

I'm also a little gripey about the ending. Maybe it's because I hold grudges more than most, but I cannot understand Kasuga's logic of forgiving and trying to fix everyone. There is no side of me that would even consider helping Ei-chan out after his bertrayal, a betrayal which got two people killed, yet Kasuga just treats him like another buddy. I'm sure it's meant to be endearing, I just can't get on board with it. And Kiryu didn't get to reunite with Haruka, which is very upsetting, although surely it still isn't the end of Kiryu's story, even if he looked like death warmed up in the final scene.

Those are the complaints, and I can't do anything but praise everything else. Obviously I say that having played over 90 hours in the game, and would happily play another 90. I don't even have other Yakuza/LAD game to play next, so I can chill out grinding job levels in IW for as long as I want!

It also took me far too long to realise all the chapter names were Elvis songs. How I didn't guess it after Suspicious Minds I don't know, but when I did work it out I was able to accurately guess one of them before they appeared.

[Ruki]

Chapter 8, the water works have begun.

Spoiler

The whole thing with Taichi. Oh man, he's only the first kid. I am gonna be a MESS. Haruka/Haruto are going to ruin my life.

 

[Chris2K]

Some further reading since completing the game has led me to a few realisations:

Spoiler

From a character standpoint this is Ichiban's Yakuza 1:

Lani is Haruka, an innocent child caught up in a crazy plot that threatens her life who Ichiban/Kiryu swears to protect.
Akane is Yumi, a loved one of Ichiban/Kiryu desperate to protect the child under threat.
Bryce is Jingu, a powerful man willing to kill the child to protect their own interests
Ebina is Nishikiyama, the main villain who is a brother (orphanage for Kiryu/Nishiki, half-brothers for Ichiban/Ebina) of the lead character who has to stop them.
Yamai is Majima, a quirky yakuza who Ichiban/Kiryu fights multiple times but ends up becoming an ally
Date is Date. There can only be one.

 

[Ruki]

Yuta Usami from 6 was voiced by (and seemingly modeled after) Tatsuya Fujiwara, the actor who played Shuya in the Battle Royale movies! That is a random piece of trivia I learned today!

Also, getting dangerously close to the end of Infinite Wealth. I'm on chapter 13 right now. This game is so good. 

[Ruki]

The ending....

Spoiler

The man who regained his name!!!!! 

 

[Captain Kirk]

Just started Infinite Wealth, as much as I love all the original characters from Kiryu series, there's just something undeniable about Ichiban, Nanba, Adachi and Saeko that for me trumps the originals.