I would love to see you cover the series as a whole. I loved your analysis of LAD and I feel like one that analyzes the sequel can only benefit from a series playthrough (though I know it’s a time commitment lol)

2:33:46 there is one save point in the kitchen area

I’ve been programming for over twenty years in everything from VB6 (which was my first language) to C, Perl, Python, C++, Java, PHP… pretty much every mainstream language of the past two decades. The past 5 years I’ve mostly worked with Go and it is the language I most enjoy working with. It isn’t suited to everything but for the majority of web oriented applications it is hard to beat. Sure you won’t be making the next Photoshop in it but it isn’t designed for that kind of application. It was designed to ease certain internet centric problem domains and it excels at that imho. Programming is about using the right tool for the problem you’re trying to solve. If that problem is network related then Go is more often than not a good if not the best solution. If it’s something else then another language is probably better suited. However given todays application development is highly connected there is almost always a place where Go will benefit you somewhere within the overall solution so I do feel most developer would be doing themselves a favour in learning Go and using it where appropriate rather than restricting themselves to just one or two languages they use to tackle every problem. After all in your career very few developers stick to one or two languages and areas. Sure some do but the majority, myself included, have bounced around all kinds of domains from desktop applications to web apps to mobile apps to backend to embedded as industries change and new opportunities open up.

Thanks based and cool hindsight Emcee! Great video thus far!

I discovered this game and series last year, you captured everything great and meaningful about it in your analysis, what makes it so special. One of the best, most insightful vids about a piece of media I've ever seen, and you put most other game reviewers to shame. Hats off sir, well done and godspeed on your quest as well.

34:58 oh boy you will like the sequel

As a fan of both beat em ups and turn based jrpgs I love this series and I always try to do every sub story in these games on first play through

Thank you based and cool hindsight emcee hold on now you're telling me to stop but I already started typing oh well

I despise the current writing in the Yakuza game all the Takeshi Miike inspiration is long gone, replace with this soap level writing.

Absolutely phenomenal dissection of one of my personal favourite games! I hope that when u get around to playing Infinite Wealth, u enjoy!

I want to see your thoughts on Infinite Wealth. I absolutely despise Yakuza gameplay. I didn't know that until AFTER I bought the series because as much as I hate the gameplay, I love the stories. So I'm slowly playing through all of them one by one and then never touching them again. I'm up to Kiwami 2 in March. I've finished 0 and K1. None of RGG studios' games respects my time and I am already sick of it. But man they tell some great stories.

So excited to watch this. Yakuza 7 is one of my favorite games of all time and I don't see enough people talking about it! I only wish the writing in infinite wealth had been better....

I also felt like the combat was too easy- I'm a Final Fantasy Tactics person, so I enjoy RPG pain. I just wanted to tell you that there are more satisfying and difficult battles available in this games sequel, Infinite Wealth. I suspect the team at RGG was erring more on the side of easier battles for Y7 because of the genre switch from brawler to RPG. My theory is that they didn't want to lock out fans of the prior style. Infinite Wealth is a better mix of optional difficult battles and some very nice tweaks to the combat that address some minor issues like how street weapons kind of don't work right in Y7.

Yay! The Yakuza games are PEAK! Excited for you to dive in. Also you have a great voice, very chill to listen to.

Kiryu is presented as perfect but is deeply flawed and not such a simple character, you'll get to see more of it if you dive into the rest of the games

Just wanna say KZbin recommended this video to me and I'm so glad it did. I could never really explained why I loved Y7 so much with its many themes but you did it perfectly and more! Earn yourself a new fan and boy I hope the damn algorithm doesn't bury your future content from my feed.

I feel an important part of Yakuza 7's narrative is lost a bit in this video. Bleach Japan sells a beautiful lie. A lie that is, understandably, agreeable on the surface. People whove fell into the grey zones, myself included, tend to view grey zones as good - as a matter of fact a valid criticism of the franchise is how it portrays these parts of the world as noble and just.- Where we see a soapload owner giving desperate women a last chance, the final safety net, others can view a sleazy greedy man profiting off of genuine sex trafficking. And would - understandably - want that man to be punished and his institution shut down. Where we see a poor guy trying to feed his family, we ignore those who are genuinely bad people, and I really can't fault anyone who would support something that looks so good on the surface. Where we see a final safety net, others may simply see the grey zones as a place for criminals to get away with their criminality. They're grey, morally dubious. For every good deed there is another person doing a misdeed. Yakuza 7's narrative stresses to not dehumanize, not to be an absolutist, but when it comes to people, even the act of opposing dehumanizing and absolution makes them fall into dehumanizing rhethoric and absolutist ideals. Its very easy to view yourself as the hero fighting the good fight™️ and to view others as either evil, ignorant, or stupid for not agreeing with you right off the bat.

Yakuza LAD was my intro to the entire series, and in fact I didn't play any of Kiryus games until after Infinite Wealth (this creates a very interesting perspective on Kiryus series ofc) I'll be going into some spoilers about Infinite Wealth, so have a few spaces and everything to avoid them... Kasuga is a very interesting protagonist, coming off as a big innocent dope thats secretly pretty intelligent and cunning (albeit still crazy lmao). But as you mentioned, he can almost come off as naive too, his entire worldview is based off of kindness and respect for everyone, something that even the greatest people in the world can't claim. By all means he SHOULD be Masumi, someone whose whole life was ruined because of the actions of another. And he SHOULDN'T forgive someone who attempted to have him assassinated... *repeatedly.* But he does. And this leads a lot into Infinite Wealths overarching theme... of faith and religion. Kasuga is literally positioned as an almost jesus-like figure, to the point that among the promotional materials for infinite wealth, they draw off the Last Supper with Ichi right there in the middle, and all his friends surrounding him. With his kindness and humility still being his core defining traits (and his sheer himboness lmao), he's put up against his main protagonist, a literal false prophet for a religious group there in Hawaii. And as he does that, he also plays a role in preparing Kiryu for what may be the end of his life. Kiryus an old man now, battling cancer. But he's incapable of forgiving himself for all the mistakes he's made through his life, and of caring about himself. Its only through spending real time with Ichiban that Kiryu starts to gain any modicum of self reflection. Eventually the two are split and Kiryu ends up leading another group back in Japan (and has managed to catch Kasugas insanity, seeing baddies transform :P), where HIS ultimate villain is another man who is trying to end the Yakuza entirely, much like Kiryu has tried... repeatedly... in the past. Without Ichibans influence, Kiryu never would have seen Ebina beyond the surface of a scumbag politicing crook, and wouldn't have gotten the closure he needed in his life, crying for forgiveness over Ebina after the final fight. TL;DR P L A Y I N F I N I T E W E A L T H

Considering this is the first Yakuza, as far as I’m aware, to do the turn based combat thing it makes sense that the devs didn’t make it particularly hard. Haven’t gotten to Infinite Wealth yet, but maybe it’s more difficult?

Emcee do you have a discord or something where I could contact you briefly to ask about how you use music and such in your videos? I just have some basic questions related to how you create videos I've found moderate success just uploading modded gameplay but Im kind of burnt out, and Id like to make a video essay if only once just to prove to myself that I can do it & to cover something im also passionate about. Just curious bro, thankyou

Thank you all so, so much for the reception this is getting so far, especially the comments. It really means a lot that this is resonating with people. More so than just helping the channel grow (which is super appreciated!) it also reassures me that a lot of people still value the empathy, compassion, and moral action that this series promotes. Keep it up, ya'll.

This is one of my favourite games of all time, literally the only problems I have with it are the gendered jobs (which, to be fair, fits with the theme of societal misogyny) and the DLCs (which could be interpreted as highlighting the ability to convert an individual's wealth into an easier life with more features that appear beneficial... at first. However, upon scrutiny they are found not only to be mainly unused by the consumer - but also facilitate further, more egregious transactions for future generations that deprive more and more people of the ability to access more and more benefits. This will facilitate far greater differences in the future that will eventually outgrow the wealth of the individual in question, thereby implying that the very concept of selfish spending is self-destructive and will lead to the downfall of societ... uh... the Yakuza series) im sorry i smoked a big joint good video

5:31 THANK YOU! OMG, I've been saying this exact thing for YEARS. In fact, it STILL pisses me off to think about what Square-Enix has done to the Final Fantasy franchise.

Great video, glad i discovered you and your valuable commentary on a game i love, keep up the good work and i’ll stay tuned for your other stuff!

Tendo winds up his OHKO and if you do enough damage to him before his next turn he doesn’t use it and the aura disappears, still i do agree it would be nice if he game explained that.

I find it funny that you used the term safety net when talking in regards to certain characters, and then the game later states that Ijincho as the social safety net for anyone. It really shows how well the game presents its themes without outright stating it. Just by your pure thought you caught on, its excellent writing on yours and the games end.

Good video!!! Don't worry about the algorithm. If you make good content like this, people will find you and stick. You make a subscribe here!

I think that Kiryu is actually quite a complex character with fairly obvious flaws. I think that perhaps when you play Infinite Wealth which has a large focus on the results of the mistakes Kiryu has made and his grappling with a certain situation then your perspective on him may evolve.

I’ve craved some good yakuza series analysis and my god you have delivered. Thank you!!

Your point about Kiryu being perfect and infalliable highlights something about Yakuza 7, as well as series soft reboots in general that will never not rub me the wrong way. A game series with cumulative history can be an amazing and equally depressing thing, seeing new and interested fans disregard a series's past for one reason or another, to no fault of their own mind you, but still something that makes me irreperably sad nonetheless. Kiryu, as well as the games he's a part of are an immensely important part of my outlook on life and my own developments as a person, and while I completely understand why people would have reservartions about playing 10 or more games to get the full experience, it hurts knowing that my video game hero, as well as his legacy could easily be thrown to the wayside and slowly fade away and be forgotten as the series moves forward with new characters and stories to tell. This isn't to say I don't like Yakuza 7 or Ichiban, however, in fact it's the complete opposite.

I appreciate this because I feel like the story in LaD is much, much stronger than Infinite Wealth.

I've finished this game literally less than a week ago...the timing of this video is amazing!!

>Kiryu is too perfect and doesn’t have any flaws yeah ok you lost me right there, no interest in hearing what you have to say about _anyhing_ Yakuza-related if you’re already misreading the games that fucking badly

Impresssive that you didnt mention *big spoiler alert* the plot twist regarding the ichiban-masato switcheroo

Don't worry a lot of mechanical issues were fixed in 8, positioning control and aoe being screwed over by movement incouded

Its steadily getting up there Emcee, im glad its doing okay so far. Ive finished this thru about 4 or 5 times already

Hindsight 20/20

Using my KZbin algorithm magic on this gem!

2:32:20 shoutout to Bud Bear he a real one

Just completed the video, loved the sign out "Good luck on your quest." Here's a couple things: do NOT play Infinite Wealth now. I'm currently playing it now and the story is very dependent in the previous games. Sure, it is a continuation and the game makes sure you get the context, but some scenes that are making me smile and cry would not hit the same without living these moments. Second thing, you NEED to play FFXIV, I'm still in Heavensward, but from what I hear and from what I saw from this video of you, you will LOVE Shadowbringers. If you can't or don't wanna play an MMORPG, at least watch a playthrough, Dan from Playframe is doing one of the whole game with the most content possible, iirc including the Dark Knight quests which are the best job quests in the game. There's a free trial that includes Heavensward and StormBlood, has no time restriction. At least give it a shot, just know that the start of the game is not that good, but it really picks up and turns into what some consider the best FF stories, each expansion being both a story of it's own and also a story that progresses the whole FFXIV story. To conclude this, I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the game, which just turn out to be almost exactly what you said in your final line: “to ignore the plight of those one might conceivably save is not wisdom - it is indolence." Good luck on your quest too.

Yeaaaah Let's get this video to a lot of views in the first hour so that it gets love from youtube Algorithm bless this video which i liked even before watching it because it's that good Seriously, sometimes i end up pissed off because i can't like it again after watching it, fix that youtube Lots of words lots of engagement, yadda yadda

My tier list has Yakuza 7 right alongside Yakuza 0 in the top rank. I love this game a lot.

Definitely the best analysis of this game I've seen so far! I am just now realizing how lots of the themes from this game resonate with the current political climate we're living in right now. Looking forward to more videos about other JRPGs, including Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth!

There’s a part on the story spoiler I’m surprised you didn’t mention about Arakawa and Ichiban’s relationship

My time is really precious, I have two amazing adopted twins with there own difficulties, who need a lot of my attention time. A full time job and a wife who would occasionally like to spend time with me. And some health issues of my own. So I get maybe one night of gaming a week, as my form of self care. (This is not a moan, I really do like my life) As a result I am extremely picky about what I play, and don’t have time to 100% full rpgs like I used too. I tried a Yakuza game, and after a hour in, only being able to walk about, I gave up. I want to try like a dragon, but am I going to bounce off again, as it requires to much time and there is too much padding?

a 2 hour video essay about my favorite game series and one of its most important games? sign me the FUCK up!

Excellent opinions. Excellent game. What a combination. In all seriousness, your message at the end is absolutely true in this bullshit world. Do what you want to do, and be proud of what you have done. I’ll always be a fan because of who you are 🤘🏻

two hours long like a dragon vid? xmas came early this year!