The Best Yakuza Combat System Debate

Lost judgement best combat. Gaiden is too inconsistent. 6 is weak but got impact. 5 is solid. 4 is rly good. 3, for me satisfying but lowkey drawn out. K2 idk don't like it. K1 rly good. 0 just rly rly good

I can't imagine wanting even more fighting styles in Gaiden. It would just be more stuff for me to ignore while I use Yakuza style for everything.
...Okay that might be an exaggeration, Agent style just didn't do it for me, but maybe some other style could have. Game didn't need it though.

binary domain has the best combat who doesnt like cover based shooting YEAHHH!!!!

I personally think every combat are generally all amazing in every game, they are all great in their own right

I'm gonna be honest, while I do like Lost Judgment's combat, what I hate the most about it is the fact that there's little risk when you get a combo going with the exceptions of Watanabe having Super Armor on his moves and Soma being Soma.

Like, I get that Lost Judgment is fun and all but you can't tell me that it's "The best combat system" when all I see from the guy making that argument is the same safe, boring, juggle combo leaving the enemy in hitsun for 18 years and then complain about Watanabe existing and ruining their combo just because he decided to Resolute Counter

OG Yakuza 2 fans, where ya at?

Me hating on yakuza turn based combat system meanwhile I play turn based games everyday on my phone

Kurohyou 2 wins no debate

as long as you're not in a group encounter

honestly, i wish more action/action rpg discussion contextualized itself within the larger meta genre and its development/techniques. very glad to see someone talking about it in this context.

I unironically love the combat in gaiden the most

Yakuza 5/0 and Lost Judgment are the peaks

but RGG combat isn’t that deep honestly. Just mindless fun QTE fests (which is a good thing)

I'm of the mindset that there is room for multiple "best" combat systems, all depending on what your personal preferences are on several factors.
Like, if you enjoy the Kiwami engine combat then take your pick - 5, 0, or K1, if you enjoy the dragon engine, LJ or Gaiden, and so on. This video is actually the first time I hear of people calling Gaiden disappointing, and it mystifies me. I personally loved it, just wish there was more of it (one of the best shortcomings a game could have!) but I still feel like I got my money's worth and had a great time. I'm not entirely sure where I'd rank it on my favorite games in the series, though I know my top 2 are 0 and LJ... I haven't finished IW yet, so we'll see if Gaiden or IW compete for third place (previously Kiwami 2).

I honestly still belive that yakuza 2 for the ps2 is one of if not the best one till this day

Kiwami 1 combat is too disruptive, does not flow properly, nerfed heat system is lacking compared to 0, and stun-lock is too common. Too many annoying bosses, not because they are hard but because they stun too much. Also, normal is too easy and hard mode is too stale with high HP enemies and nerfed damage.

LJ still is the best for me atleast till this point (im still on kiwami 2), everything just flows and feels responsive compare to the others games i’ve played. its probably one of the games where i was encourge to switch style on every fight encounter like Ghost of Tsushima, where every styles just have their own uses plus the game rewards you for it.

My favorite combat systems in my opinion are Yakuza 0's, Yakuza kiwami, and Lost Judgement. Though if i did had to pick one, it would be Lost Judgement. It's not perfect I know, but the main thing I like about Lost Judgement's combo system besides the improved juggling I show it encourages the player to not stick to one style, and one of the most stylish combat systems in the franchise. Though I will say I wish they had given Kaito a third style, and that you didn't have press multiple buttons for the qtes.

I find it hilarious that he said Lost Judgment's boxing style was barely a proof of concept when it's easily the strongest style in the game.

I do love how much combat has changed and been experimented on since, and i loooove gaiden's combat especially, however i will firmly state that yakuza 2 still did it best way back nearly 20 years ago

You can just cheese the six second juggle thing by dropping them before it happens and instantly rejuggle them. It just punishes the player for having fun. Really, I don't think there's a single thing that Gaiden does better than LJ combat wise. Agent is useless without spamming gadgets/entering EX-Heat and Yakuza is horribly slow somehow compared to Y6. Like another comment said, Agent feels like a gimmick to deal with the bigger enemy count.

I'm salty for saying this but Gaiden could've been even better if they didn't went straight to nerfing air juggling timer and had more launcher type moves, but, u can pull off some crazy stuff still and both styles actually being useful is a pretty good choice made by rgg going forward
Yakuza 3/4 better tho wallbounding is peak rgg combat

People who say Gaiden needed more styles are looking at the flaws of the combat and finding the wrong solution.

Agent is janky, undercooked, and unintuitive and Yakuza style is back to 6 speeds with no way to improve the speed. Gaiden enemies are super aggressive but there's no parry(despite him having one in literally every game) and Kiryu is sluggish which leads to stale and degenerate strategies being rewarded in favor of experimentation or style.

Yakuza style in particular is frustrating because it's not only slow but the moves it shares with Tiger are somehow worse, it still has the shitty K2 run attack instead of the 6 drop kick, and the hitboxes seem to lack verticality leading to juggles getting dropped due to Kiryu straight up whiffing

The juggle limit is a good idea in theory but 6 seconds is wayyyy too short and the lack of damage scaling is a bit of a problem

They shouldn't have never went to turn base combat.They should have just left the combat system it had already alone and just improved on the combat system that i enjoyed.

LJ, Gaiden and 0 are the best

I don't know who thinks a yakuza game needs more styles than necessary but it really isn't. Thats why people had such a great reaction to judgment even though there was only two styles and the kaito files was also decently fun. Also a lot of the reasons why LJ is good is because of the BALANCING between enemies and yagami. Enemies never felt too difficult (except juzo amon) because yagami's kit was perfected. Snake style was the cherry on top because every yakua game should have some sort of parry. Also gaiden's combat is not good like at all. Not due to the lack of styles but the balancing and jankiness of the moves. RGG DID NOT see how LJ was received and copied it. Otherwise, the games combat would be more enjoyable. Because then agent style would be more like snake with more grabs and shorter combo strings (they are way too long). Enemies also have a feeling of overwhelming you which makes the janky agent gadgets a must for literally every combat encounter. Its not good balancing at all, especially when they reduced the length of the well-received ability to juggle. 5 and gaiden were the only two games that I've played that have bad balancing imo. I dont know what some of the comments are smoking but both gaiden and ishin kiwamis combat is just bad. Of course personal preference does come in but those are the only 2 yakuza games where if you enjoy its rubbish combat then there is something wrong with you (yes this is a personal attack). I do appreciate the fact that ishin kiwami was in new territory for RGG being a port into a different game engine and i do also like how the game was trying to experiment with new things. Gaiden just threw a lot of what works out the window in order to add 4 gadgets that disrupts the flow of combat at every turn. And I'm not gonna say that i dont know how they could've done it better (literally make some of the gadgets flow into combo strings e.g. spider gadget becomes bounding throws, cigarettes can be used at the end of combo strings that push enemies away and the rocket shoes could've been turned into some sort of crane sky dancer but improved). There is no excuse they should've let the game cook a lot longer.

I completely disagree with your points. Yes experimentation is needed, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of overall quality. Judgment was an experimental title but it directly improved the overall quality of DE combat and set a new standard for it, something that LJ did after Judgment.

Gaiden was an overall downgrade from the DE combat system that LJ established. It made changes that served nothing for the game. The Yakuza style lost so much of its utility from K2 and 6, along with having a slow ass combo speed. The juggling limit literally adds nothing to game but make its combat more limited. The agent style is pretty gimmicky and also limited by itself, certainly not enough to carry the combat. If Gaiden had kept the LJ juggling system, way less people would have complained, because although we’ve regressed to 2 styles, the overall standard and quality we expect from the combat is still left mostly untouched.

Gaiden's combat is s solid on its own but progression completely ruins it. At the start (on Professional), you deal no damage with anything that isn't a weapon or Heat Action. As you upgrade, it becomes solid but it feels like you end up having to use only Yakuza because Agent has piss poor damage and the gadgets just don't feel good to use (unless you're using Extreme Heat, which just feels cheesy and extremely simplistic). Then at the endgame, you become so OP you just melt everything by doing multiple Heat Actions in a row because of your insane damage combined with the fact that Extreme Heat for Yakuza removing Heat Action cooldown.

I like the combat system itself, but the progression is such a mess that it makes it crumble apart.

Yeah 2 fighting styles actually made a lot of sense for Gaiden because think about it. The game has a 12 hour story with any side content being up to you on how much of it you want complete, if the game had 4 fighting styles there's no way most players will realistically be able to upgrade each fighting style to it's full potential.

Also I liked your approach to it because a lot this discussion is widely subjective. For example, I much rather deal with Y3's blocking than Y6/K2's ragdolling.

Nobody is saying LJ is perfect, but it is definitely more polished compared to Gaiden. You probably wont even read the rest of this comment but honestly This comes off like you're trying hard to defend against gaidens flaws yet the key point you're missing when comparing LJ to Gaiden isn't cause there's less styles or less juggle time. It's about is how the games systems are incomplete with itself Say what you want about snake and boxer style but they complement all 4 styles better when it comes to boss design cause they actually interact with all of Yagamis moves. However, with Gaiden's bosses, they tank all of Kiryu's hits where you can barely get a combo in while hardly any of the utility of Agent styles gadgets even work against them. You menrion extreme heat mode being an "evolution" yet Kiryu's agent style combo inconsistently launches enemies when it wants to and you cant even use his regular melee combos in it compared to LJ's extreme heat. Idek why you used bayonetta as an example because the systems in that game actually work with eachorher. It could've been an evolution if they spent more than some months developing the game, then the combat could've been more polished, but compared to LJ it isn't. THAT is the problem with it. You didn't even explain what makes it an evolution besides the enemies scale and saying "I liked it" lol

the best system is MY system, clearly

Gaiden literally did not improve upon anything. If it did, what exactly?

best combat? obviously rggo

Gaiden best game i have never used the agent in the game and it ROCKED so good it was soooo satisfying imma go download it again

Im gonna stick with LJ because it the only game i even try to do no damage even tho im bad at it compare to other game where i just said im not gonna do it at all

My favourite is definitely a toss up between Yakuza 5 or Gaiden. Individually and just purely 'for me' I enjoyed Tanimura's the most, especially when only viewing it in the context of Yakuza 4 and only Yakuza 4.

I think 0 or Kiwami 2

In regard to dragon engine, Gaiden puts Kiwami 2 and 6 to shame.

Kurohyou 2, no debate

While i do agree Kiryu's combat in Gaiden can be considered 'near perfect', but if im gonna be honest Lost Judgment still stays on top, not because it has multiple styles and the juggling mechanic. Its the best because well, people enjoy it and the find it fun. You can argue people like the game because they wanna be stylish or for any other popular reason. But in Gaiden's case its a game made in 6 months and the combat feels undercooked especially for Agent style, it has its uses mostly for ex heat, and the heat gain is sooooo slow and the gadgets are not that useful for the most part. Unless if you cheese and serpent your way to objects or enemies and for Yakuza style its so damn slow compared to Kiwami 2 and 6 and some moves that were added in Kiwami 2 either got removed or deemed useless like the parry and the light charges for example, people complain about the juggle limit because it prevents players to play their own way and having fun and the fact most enemies are very aggressive. While i did expect Gaiden's combat to mix the DE and OE moves im still dissapointed by it but mods can slightly fix it but guess its been done. I do like the story and the content of the game but the combat feels undercooked, i dont blame RGG for this but decisions on the combat for the game is odd like the juggle limit, they couldve not just add the juggles in the first place in Gaiden and it shouldve had more moves. My point still stands that both Lost Judgment and 0 are the best combat.

We all know the best combat is found in Kurohyou 2, followed by 1 and Yakuza 3

In all of my Yakuza fan friends' opinions, Gaiden and Ishin Kiwami, both those who've played and those who haven't, are complaining.
Gaiden made old fans, who still had fantasies about ACT yakuza, completely disappointed.
And infinite wealth, directly disgusted a considerable number of fans who were attracted by YLAD

Y5 Kiryu, Y4 Akiyama and LJ Yagami are my definite favorites. So much fun. But man, does it fell great to unlock Tiger Drop in Y3 and wreck people.

Don't get me wrong, the Snake style in Lost Judgement wasn't exactly necessary, but I'm glad Yagami has it. It's not only kinda fun, but its also pretty good in combos.

3 and 4 are the best because of wall bounding

I don't think there is any issue with a newer title being less ambitious. But gaiden was a downgrade from lost judgement. They simply removed too much

honestly original ps2 yakuzas
all of the combos had its own use and then they just forgot

pre-dragon engine i would say 5 has the best combat. post dragon engine would be lost judgment though i loved agent style in gaiden

my favorite is Y5 Kiryu, part of why I own the games on PC is so that I can have the classic DoD style in the Kiryu Dragon Engine games

In my opinion the yakuza infinite wealth combat is pretty damn nice. Probably the best jrpgive played

so at the end everything is pointless, how y3 actually fit the game exactly? their styles have been going more poorer in quality and to fix that we need to stop giving them excuses

Something being the best doesn't mean it's perfect, and a new system being different than the one perceived as the best one, doesn't mean the new one is effectively worse. Recently, I've seen less and less constructive criticism being offered, with people instead choosing to criticise a new release because its not like an older one they enjoyed (this isn't specific to Yakuza, but I digress).

If we want this series to keep evolving, our discourse needs to evolve from merely saying "the older ones were better", or alternatively, saying that "you're not a fan if you don't like the new games too". As much as we adore them, these games were never perfect, but with each new addition, they've gradually improved in one way or another. Changes we may dislike now, could lead to something universally praised in due time.

Moral of the story: we still have significant room for improvement left in these games, and the sooner we stop being so apprehensive towards anything new, the closer we'll be to helping RGG craft something truly perfect.

Thank you for watching!