Platinum Rant

[Eraezr]

I'm doing my first Yakuza game platinum playthrough (Yakuza 4) and I'm slowly learning that it's about learning more systems than usual in one game. As opposed to your average video game like Uncharted which has only one gameplay system (adventure jumping/shooting) or in DriveClub (racing game with the usual disciplines of driving line). At most, the average game might try for 3 systems like in Red Dead Redemption (throwing horse shoes, playing cards & adventure-shooting). But Yakuza 4 is like mahjong, arcade, pachinko, hostess training, batting, fighting - there are at least seven systems which demand a higher attentional economy.

Edited January 9, 2022 by Eraezr

[Artty44]

2 hours ago, Eraezr said:

I'm doing my first Yakuza game platinum playthrough (Yakuza 4) and I'm slowly learning that it's about learning more systems than usual in one game. As opposed to your average video game like Uncharted which has only one gameplay system (adventure jumping/shooting) or in DriveClub (racing game with the usual disciplines of driving line). At most, the average game might try for 3 systems like in Red Dead Redemption (throwing horse shoes, playing cards & adventure-shooting). But Yakuza 4 is like mahjong, arcade, pachinko, hostess training, batting, fighting - there are at least seven systems which demand a higher attentional economy.

 

Interesting that you started with Yak 4, out of curiousity,was there any particular reason you chose to do this? 

 

Personally, this is one of the biggest selling points of the series for me. In general, they add tremendous depth to the game and add lots of variety to the gameplay experience.

 

They don't always get it right (the aformentioned catfights) but generally speaking the hit rate is very high and the mechanics are mostly (excluding pool in Yak 3 obviously and needless to say, catfights!, being the most prominent examples that spring to mind) very well implemented and thought out. Whilst I love the writing, characters, side quests and stories of the games the ability to just go off for several hours and run a hostess club or become a pocket circuit guru, play mahjong or hit the batting cages, amongst many others, is a recurring massive highlight for me of the games overall and one of the things I look forward to most when playing (or replaying) any Yakuza series game not to mention the sense of accomplishment that comes with mastering (or at least enough to complete the requirements) each particular minigame.

 

To me, the minigames, as well as the exploration of Kamurochu, Sotenbori, Okinawa, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Nagoya and Hiroshima and their various bars, restaurants and other establishments, are all a massive part of the series appeal and charm.

Edited January 9, 2022 by Artty44

[Eraezr]

2 hours ago, Artty44 said:

 

Interesting that you started with Yak 4, out of curiousity,was there any particular reason you chose to do this? 

 

 

Basically...

 

> Be me

> Don't know anything about Yakuza series/indifferent

> Sees shiny Y4 PS3 steelbook on the preowned shelf

> Buy game

> Finally playing game after letting it collect dust in my cabinet for 5 years

[You]

I actually don't think there's anything wrong with the cat fight minigame, the actual problem itself is the trophy. Why 10 times? Once would have been enough.

Imagine if you had to beat 300 opponent in a row instead of 30 like the tournament trophy currently is? We'd all be hating on that trophy instead.

 

Only minigame in a Yakuza I have not really got on with is the Pachinko games in Yakuza 4 and Yakuza Of The End etc. The RNG in that game is tough and just seeing that Aladdin mingame just gets boring. Plus I did that trophy four times lol. Fopr Yakuza 4 twice and Of The End twice.

 

If I had to do Pachinko game in Yakuza 4 and do it 10 times in one platinum INSTEAD of once....

Edited January 9, 2022 by enaysoft

[AJ_Radio]

10 hours ago, Artty44 said:

I wish people would stop ragging on Mahjong . Mahjong is my favourite minigame in Yakuza. Because of Yakuza, I downloaded a separate Riichi Mahjong app. Yes the RNG can shaft you at times but it's still a great minigame and none of the requirements around it have ever caused too much of a problem.

 

You can't expect people to automatically like Mahjong or even know much about Mahjong, since most of us here play a good variety of western games like Red Dead Redemption. Therefore it takes time to learn these eastern gambling games and for some people that throws them off.

[Artty44]

13 hours ago, AJ_Radio said:

 

You can't expect people to automatically like Mahjong or even know much about Mahjong, since most of us here play a good variety of western games like Red Dead Redemption. Therefore it takes time to learn these eastern gambling games and for some people that throws them off.

 

Thanks for your response and I understand your point. I don't expect anyone to like or dislike anything automatically and people can dislike or like whatever they want, it just seems to get a disproportionate amount of hate vs some of the other minigames in the series. 

 

I assume by Western games you mean games made in the west for western sensibilities rather than games about the wild west, in which case, that's where most of my gaming experience comes from and I personally had never played Riichi Mahjong until March last year in Yakuza 3 so it was completely new to me too and took me some time to get to grips with. The positive is, once you learn, you're set for the whole franchise then as the game rarely changes except when Wareme Mahjong comes into it for Judgment. So yeah it takes a bit of effort to learn and understand and you can't just bash your way through it but for me, that's part of the challenge of the game and part of the series is about that immersion into Japanese culture so it's ultimately part of what the Yakuza series is about.

 

Once you take the time to understand it a little (and there are some exceptional guides out there) it's really quite easy (albeit still at the mercy of RNG at times) so I guess I'm just surprised that in every forum thread it's 'f*** Mahjong' or whatever considering most games have mechanics or aspects that you need to understand or learn about in order to play them. 

 

 

 

Edited January 10, 2022 by Artty44

[Boorish]

On 1/9/2022 at 9:04 AM, enaysoft said:

 

You should definitely stop all your minigames so far and finish off Mahjong, Baseball, Pool and Disco first, if you can get those out of the way then you'll get Platinum.

I made the mistake of doing all the minigames and leaving the hardest few till last on Yakuza 3, which I couldn't do.

 

Meaning that I wasted about 2-3 weeks, to then fail at the final hurdle so I had no trophies at all for all the other minigames up till that point, for the other 98% of the minigames.

I took a break from the game after the disco sub-stories. The part that I hate about it that the opponent's score is complete RNG. I have 3 starts in all the songs on all difficulties and I have also gotten a 7400 on one of the song the sub-story uses. I have also seen the AI score <7400, but not when I made my high score. They just make an absurd 8000 every time. I don't understand why 3-starts isn't enough. The game takes this mini-game too seriously.

 

I haven't even started with Mahjong or Baseball, and from what I've heard, I know I am going to hate it. I wish it didn't include that in the 100% requirement for the western release. All this when the story is so good that I can keep myself from jumping to the next game in the series.

Edited January 10, 2022 by boorish_brute

[da-Noob123]

I am currently playing my first Yakuza game and am loving it. It's Like a Dragon, which I understand is probably the easiest one to platinum. I have played quite a few minigames so far and they definitely challenge you. I plan to play Yakuza 0 through to 6 and for those who have already played the Yakuza series, how would Fanorona (Expert) from Assassin's Creed 3, and the Pull Up minigame from Final Fantasy VII Remake, compare to Yakuza's more challenging minigames? I'm just trying to get a gauge of the challenge ahead and those are some of the more challenging minigames I have "conquered."

[Moridin83]

34 minutes ago, da-Noob123 said:

I am currently playing my first Yakuza game and am loving it. It's Like a Dragon, which I understand is probably the easiest one to platinum. I have played quite a few minigames so far and they definitely challenge you. I plan to play Yakuza 0 through to 6 and for those who have already played the Yakuza series, how would Fanorona (Expert) from Assassin's Creed 3, and the Pull Up minigame from Final Fantasy VII Remake, compare to Yakuza's more challenging minigames? I'm just trying to get a gauge of the challenge ahead and those are some of the more challenging minigames I have "conquered."

Not really comparable? Fanorona could be cheesed with a website (if I remember right) and the pull ups was largely muscle memory. The different Yakuza games all have their own worst minigames, but for some standout bad/hard ones;

Yakuza 0 Catfights - Total RNG, and not fun even when winning.

Batting in almost all Yakuza games requires precise timing and holding your controller very steady

Yakuza 3 Pool - Aiming is totally broken, so good luck. Dishonorable mention to batting in this game too, as ex hard with no reticle requires you to hang/stick something on your tv.

Yakuza 4 Pachinko - another terrible RNG slog, even with the cheat item to help.

 

I second the sentiment that Mahjong isn't that bad, and just requires a little time to learn the basic gameplay. I enjoy it far more than poker in these games. Yakuza poker opponents are so unpredictable, you can't guess what they're going to do, and are best off brute forcing it with a big chip stack.

I haven't got to 5 or 6 yet, so no comment on them.

[Artty44]

On 10/01/2022 at 5:54 PM, da-Noob123 said:

I am currently playing my first Yakuza game and am loving it. It's Like a Dragon, which I understand is probably the easiest one to platinum. I have played quite a few minigames so far and they definitely challenge you. I plan to play Yakuza 0 through to 6 and for those who have already played the Yakuza series, how would Fanorona (Expert) from Assassin's Creed 3, and the Pull Up minigame from Final Fantasy VII Remake, compare to Yakuza's more challenging minigames? I'm just trying to get a gauge of the challenge ahead and those are some of the more challenging minigames I have "conquered."

 

Welcome to the series! Like A Dragon isn't the easiest and in fact, has a really steep difficulty curve for the millenium tower bit at the end. The easiest would be Yakuza 6 which is more story driven, more streamlined and whilst it still has minigames etc it doesn't require 100% completion. I'm sure you're aware but just in case you aren't, Like A Dragon is the only current turn based RPG style game in the series. The others are more action oriented and brawler type games so a different experience although they share similar DNA in terms of minigames, side stories, restaurants, shops etc.

 

In terms of the difficulty of the minigames, it's somewhat tricky to say for certain as they require different skills and some people wil naturally be better at things than others and whilst there are some mainstays of the series, some aren't in all of the games.  A few examples :

 

UFO Catcher - The crane grab machine. Certainly easier than these machines in real life and in some of the games it can be quite easy to complete all the requirements, however Yakuza 5 has a particular machine where you have to effective lower a cylinder into a hole to complete the game. Trying to line this up and get it in the hole can range from super easy to painfully annoying depending on how good you are at it.

 

Shogi - Japanese chess. I've never really got my head around this because thankfully, you don't need to learn how to play it in order to achieve the requirements in most games. There is often a cheat item that means the computer picks the best move for you in any game. Takes a while but is pretty failsafe. Youtube videos exist for all the challenges you have to complete.

 

Mahjong - If you are not familiar with this there can be a steep learning curve. You essentially have to learn what makes up a valid sequence of tiles and rely on luck, skill and the RNG to meet all the requirements and become somewhat familiar with the Japanese terminology (Ron, Tsumo, Riichi etc). 

 

If you've ever played Rummy or Gin Rummy, the concept is somehwat similar. To put it simply, you need 4 groups of 3 tiles (either 3 of the same suit (3-3-3, 4-4-4 etc) or sequential tiles e.g. (1-2-3, 4-5-6 etc) or a mix of the two and one group of 2 (4-4,7-7 etc) to finish the hand but there are other ways to achieve it (7 pairs for example where yoh have 7 sets of 2 matching tiles).

 

How things play out will depend on if you try to build your hand youself through the tiles you draw or those you steal (pon, chi)from others...if you do steal, your ability to finish a hand is reduced as when you steal your hand is no longer 'concealed' meaning the number of hands you can finish on is reduced. This is where a lot of players come unstuck because they steal and end up not being able to complete a hand because they can't achieve a han (or scoring hand). If this is you, try to play without stealing as it will complicate the process and aim to build the sets through the tiles you draw.

 

A useful tip is to press the Square button after each tile you draw, if you have a hand where only one tile is needed, a prompt to declare 'Riichi' will pop up. When doing this, you're presented with the tiles you need in a small menu on the left hand side of the screen. Once activated the game auto plays until someone else wins or the tile you need pops up either from someone else (Ron) or you draw it (Tsumo). The idea here is to discard the tile that gives you the greatest chance of winning.

 

The screen will tell you how many of each tile you need is still in play, the object would be to pick the option that has tje greatest chance of winning e.g  the most tiles with highest numbers attached to them.  'In play' could either mean the tiles are in the communal deck to be drawn or in other player's decks. It comes down to luck.

 

Bear in mind, no matter how good you are, sometimes you will be shafted by the RNG. In the games that allow you to save within the mahjong parlour, take advantage of this.....if the tiles don't fall your way, reload and try again. Trust me, as someone with 11 platinums across the Yakuza and Judgment series where Mahjong has been in it, in the end you will get the completion requirements if you persevere.

 

The easiest method is to put the red dora setting on. This adds some red 5 tiles to the deck and this counts as a dora (1 han) e.g. allows you to finish a hand). Also try to build a 3 tile set of winds (N,S,W,E) or Dragons (White = blank, Red = Red symbol, Green = Green Symbol). A set of 3 matching winds or dragons = 1 han and means you can finish a hand if you can get 3 further sets of 3 and a pair. It sounds a lot more complicated then it actually is. 

 

 I find the below to be an incredibly useful resource when playing

 

 

 

 Some games in the series contain a Lucky Mahjong Tile cheat item which you can find or sometimes buy which will give you an instant win though these can be hard to find or require specific actions to achieve and normally only appear once or twice in the games they appear in. The requirements for Mahjong depend on the game but routinely, you'd have to win a number of times at the Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced tables winning numerous hands as you go. 

 

Casino games  - Poker, Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat - These are the same as the casino games in the west and you can find cheat items in the game for most of these normally. Depending on how well you know these games the completion requirements can be a real chore. Roulette for example is largely luck based. There are little things you can do to make your odds better, but you will likely end up save scumming in order to minimise the grind. Depending on how well you know the rules to Texas Hold Em Poker, this may be easy and fun or harder and difficult. Blackjack is just 21 so trying to get a hand closer to 21 than the dealer has and Baccarat is mostly chance based where you bet the player will win, the dealer will win or it will be a tie.

 

Karaoke - Most of the games (booo Judgment!) feature your protagonist doing Karaoke. Essentialy a rhythm game where you hit the corresponding button on the pad in time to what is displayed on the screen. How good you are often depends on how good you are at rhythm games and some of the songs can be a challenge such as scoring 900 on Otometal My Life.

 

Gambling Hall games - Cee-Lo, Cho-Han, Oichu-Kabu & Koi Koi - Gambling for money is illegal in Japan so you tend to have to go to some underground gambling hall in the games to find these. You can often find cheat items for these games where they appear. Cee-Lo is a dice gambling game with 3 dice where the object is to have a better roll of dice than the banker  heavily dependent on the RNG, Cho-Han (even - odd) is a dice guessing game where you guess if the dice is....odd or even. Mostly luck based. Oichu-Kabu (eight-nine) is a game where you aim to get your 3 cards to add up to, or as close to 9 as possible (fun fact, this is where the name Yakuza is believed to have come from...a hand of 8-9-3 pronounced Ya-Ku-Za phonetically, is the worst hand in the game thus being a 'loser' which became the slang name for gangsters in Japan). My personal favourite, Koi-Koi, (meaning come on), is a card game where you aim to build special combinations of cards (additional fun fact, Nintendo started out as a card company and still manufactures Hanafuda cards, like the ones used in this game, today). Can be tricky as you need to have an idea of the 2 or 3 hands you'll need to build to win regularly (mainly Moon Viewing and Cherry Blossom Viewing) but it's a) not massively difficult and cheat items can be used. 

 

Darts - In most if not all of the games. Much harder in the remastered collection (3,4,5) than in the games featuring the dragon engine (0,K1,K2,6,LAD, Judgment/Lost Judgment). Generally you can get better quality darts that make aiming/scoring easier. In most versions you'll need to complete 501 (first to score 501 wins) Cricket (need to get 3 darts to hit triple 17 for example after which, a further dart on triple 17 will score you points. The computer will do the same and try to block you by hitting the same areas) and count up where you just outscore your opponent. 

 

Pool - Ridiculously hard in Yakuza 3 because of the control sensitivity. Many people have stated they can't plat Yakuza 3 because of this one minigame. It is no joke and requires a lot of practice to get it right and beat all the opponents who depending on the difficulty can wipe the floor with you. That said pool does become easier in other games but it's not in all of them. My recommendation is to start on the hardest opponent....once you beat him it gets easier. Will still take time but once I beat him I knew I could plat the game after that.

 

Arcade games - These can differ depending on the game but all of them are old Sega games (except Boxcelios which is an original game and maybe 1 or 2 others) and don't really take that much effort. The most time consuming are the Virtua Fighter ones as these require you to complete challenges like completing the game with each character or notching up a certain amount of wins. Most of them don't really pose a challenge. However, be warned, if playing Judgment on PS4 you will need to complete Puyo Puyo (a game very similar to Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine on the Mega Drive (Genesis)) to a high level and this is a plat breaker for a lot of players. A good tip is to take advantage of Puyo Puyo appearing in Yakuza 6. In Y6 there are no requirements to even play it so you can safely try it out to see if you can achieve the requirements in Judgment on PS4. There are methods on Youtube on how to achieve this and they do work so again, perseverence is required. Alternatively, if you have a PS5, you can avoid the PS4 version and play the PS5 version of Judgment which removes Puyo-Puyo and the pinball game altogether (but where's the fun in that ?).

 

Bowling - Not massively difficult to get to grips with. 

 

Fishing - Depending on the game, can be tricky. Some of the fish are quite tricky to find in Yak 0 and you tend to need to find every available fish in a game. I recall Yak 3 being more of a pain fishing wise than any other yakuza game as the mechanics were different but ultimately not very hard just time consuming, 

 

Batting Center - A lot harder on the older games where the trick is to watch Kiryu (or other character) and wait to see the movement in their arm which is the cue to hit the button to strike the ball. In Yak 3 the target indicator disappears at the top difficulty and you'll need to use something (post it note etc, though check it doesn't damage your screen (no liability is accepted for anyone who damages their screen following after reading this) in order to hit the targets. In Dragon Engine games, the batting center was made much easier with different bats increasing the ability to hit the ball easier and there are guides that tell you exactly what the next delivery will be so you just need to time it right. In some of the games you can buy or earn different bats that enhance the strike area giving you more time to make a good connection. 

 

Catfights -  * Sigh * I've platted 12 Ryu Ga Gotoku games (Soon to be 14 with ps4 Like A Dragon and PS4 Lost Judgment) and there is no minigame that is as awful, horrible and utterly pointless as this. This is, in my opinion, one of the worst minigames in any series let alone the Yakuza ones. Only appears in one game thankfully and as a watered down, easier version in Kiwami called MesuKing which is card based and played in the arcade (lots of side stories tie into this). Completely RNG and/or luck based despite what some people say to the contrary. Woman in skimpy outfits fighting each other where the outcome is pretty much random. Doesn't seem to be anything you can do to influence the outcome so just need to grind this to completion. This will hurt.

 

Disco - Again, a bit of a rhythm game type scenario where the difficulty can get a bit tricky. Some people in this thread have had real trouble with it. I didn't think it was too bad but there were some difficult moments for definite. Timing is the main thing and there are youtiube vids that can help with this.

 

Golf - I found this quite tricky in Yakuza 3 and in some of the later games it becomes trickier as you essentially need to hit numbers on a giant board taking into account strength of shot, wind and other factors or get close to the pin to score points. Can be quite tricky but again there are guides out there that can assist.

 

That's generally the gist of it. There are others but generally speaking these are the ones that pop up a lot. These are just the minigames though so distinct from things like the Coliseum, battle arena or climax battles which can be their own separate challenge. 

 

Use Youtube, use everything at your disposal to get to grips with them. Some of them are tough either because of skill required or because of system limitations (the remastered collection) or RNG strife (several of them) but if you persevere they are doable. I platted them all last year (in order) 3,0,K1,K2,4,5,6,LAD, Fist of the North Star and Judgment (PS5) one after the other between March and July with Judgment on PS4 and Lost Judgment on PS5 coming later. I am due to do LAD and Lost Judgment on PS4 (Not cross save so like Judgment need to do them both from scratch) soon so they are very much plattable with some easier than others.

 

The final thing I recommend to anyone playing these games. Use the guides by CyricZ to assist you. This guy is a bit of a legend in the Yakuza game community and his guides are considered by many to be the gold standard and will help you out a lot when it comes to completion, particularly with Mahjong. I enclose the link to his Yakuza 0 guide below and you'll find one for every other game for the series (including Fist of the North Star and up to Lost Judgment) by clicking on his name.

 

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/816306-yakuza-0/faqs/74451

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 27, 2022 by Artty44

[da-Noob123]

@Moridin83 and @Artty44 Thank you for in depth info, it will be quite useful in the near future.

 

Artty, Like a Dragon is excellent,  I am 50 hours in and am on chapter 9/15. It starts a little slow but the story is really starting to come together right now. The references to Dragon Quest and other games keeps me smiling the whole time, it's wonderfully done.

[Artty44]

Just now, da-Noob123 said:

@Moridin83 and @Artty44 Thank you for in depth info, it will be quite useful in the near future.

 

Artty, Like a Dragon is excellent,  I am 50 hours in and am on chapter 9/15. It starts a little slow but the story is really starting to come together right now. The references to Dragon Quest and other games keeps me smiling the whole time, it's wonderfully done.

 

No problem, hopefully some of it helps. I have platted Like A Dragon on the PS5, I really enjoyed it and being a fan of traditional turn based RPGs, it really resonated with me. Looking forward to platting it again on PS4.

[AJ_Radio]

On 1/10/2022 at 11:01 AM, Artty44 said:

 

Welcome to the series! Like A Dragon isn't the easiest and in fact, has a really steep difficulty curve for the millenium tower bit at the end. The easiest would be Yakuza 6 which is more story driven, more streamlined and whilst it still has minigames etc it doesn't require 100% completion. I'm sure you're aware but just in case you aren't, Like A Dragon is the only current turn based RPG style game in the series. The others are more action oriented and brawler type games so a different experience although they share similar DNA in terms of minigames, side stories, restaurants, shops etc.

 

In terms of the difficulty of the minigames, it's somewhat tricky to say for certain as they require different skills and some people wil naturally be better at things than others and whilst there are some mainstays of the series, some aren't in all of the games.  A few examples :

 

UFO Catcher - The crane grab machine. Certainly easier than these machines in real life and in some of the games it can be quite easy to complete all the requirements, however Yakuza 5 has a particular machine where you have to effective lower a cylinder into a hole to complete the game. Trying to line this up and get it in the hole can range from super easy to painfully annoying depending on how good you are at it.

 

Shogi - Japanese chess. I've never really got my head around this because thankfully, you don't need to learn how to play it in order to achieve the requirements in most games. There is often a cheat item that means the computer picks the best move for you in any game. Takes a while but is pretty failsafe. Youtube videos exist for all the challenges you have to complete.

 

Mahjong - If you are not familiar with this there can be a steep learning curve. You essentially have to learn what makes up a valid sequence of tiles and rely on luck, skill and the RNG to meet all the requirements and become somewhat familiar with the Japanese terminology (Ron, Tsumo, Riichi etc).  Some games in the series contain a Lucky Mahjong Tile which will give you an instant win though these can be hard to find or require specific actions to achieve and normally only appear once or twice in the games they appear in. The requirements for Mahjong depend on the game but routinely, you'd have to win a number of times at the Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced tables winning numerous hands as you go. 

 

Casino games  - Poker, Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat - These are the same as the casino games in the west and you can find cheat items in the game for most of these normally. Depending on how well you know these games the completion requirements can be a real chore. Roulette for example is largely luck based. There are little things you can do to make your odds better, but you will likely end up save scumming in order to minimise the grind. Depending on how well you know the rules to Texas Hold Em Poker, this may be easy and fun or harder and difficult. Blackjack is just 21 so trying to get a hand closer to 21 than the dealer has and Baccarat is mostly chance based where you bet the player will win, the dealer will win or it will be a tie.

 

Karaoke - Most of the games (booo Judgment!) feature your protagonist doing Karaoke. Essentialy a rhythm game where you hit the corresponding button on the pad in time to what is displayed on the screen. How good you are often depends on how good you are at rhythm games and some of the songs can be a challenge such as scoring 900 on Otometal My Life.

 

Gambling Hall games - Cee-Lo, Cho-Han, Oichu-Kabu & Koi Koi - Gambling for money is illegal in Japan so you tend to have to go to some underground gambling hall in the games to find these. You can often find cheat items for these games where they appear. Cee-Lo is a dice gambling game with 3 dice where the object is to have a better roll of dice than the banker  heavily dependent on the RNG, Cho-Han (even - odd) is a dice guessing game where you guess if the dice is....odd or even. Mostly luck based. Oichu-Kabu (eight-nine) is a game where you aim to get your 3 cards to add up to, or as close to 9 as possible (fun fact, this is where the name Yakuza is believed to have come from...a hand of 8-9-3 pronounced Ya-Ku-Za phonetically, is the worst hand in the game thus being a 'loser' which became the slang name for gangsters in Japan). My personal favourite, Koi-Koi, (meaning come on), is a card game where you aim to build special combinations of cards. Can be tricky as you need to have an idea of the 2 or 3 hands you'll need to build to win regularly but it's a) not massively difficult and b ) cheat items can be used.

 

Darts - In most if not all of the games. Much harder in the remastered collection (3,4,5) than in the games featuring the dragon engine (0,K1,K2,6,LAD, Judgment/Lost Judgment). Generally can get better quality darts that make aiming/scoring easier. In most versions you'll need to complete 501 (first to score 501 wins) Cricket (need to get 3 darts to hit triple 17 for example to score on that section aiming to score more than the opponent) and count up where you just outscore your opponent. 

 

Pool - Ridiculously hard in Yakuza 3 because of the control sensitivity. Many people have stated they can't plat Yakuza 3 because of this one minigame. It is no joke and requires a lot of practice to get it right and beat all the opponents who depending on the difficulty can wipe the floor with you. That said pool does become easier in other games but it's not in all of them. My recommendation is to start on the hardest opponent....once you beat him it gets easier. Will still take time but once I beat him I knew I could plat the game after that.

 

Arcade games - These can differ depending on the game but all of them are old Sega games (except Boxcelios which is an original game and maybe 1 or 2 others) and don't really take that much effort. The most time consuming are the Virtua Fighter ones as these require you to complete challenges like completing the game with each character or notching up a certain amount of wins. Most of them don't really pose a challenge. However, be warned, if playing Judgment on PS4 you will need to complete Puyo Puyo to a high level and this is a plat breaker for a lot of players. 

 

Bowling - Not massively difficult to get to grips with. 

 

Fishing - Depending on the game, can be tricky. Some of the fish are quite tricky to find in Yak 0 and you tend to need to find every available fish in a game. I recall Yak 3 being more of a pain fishing wise than any other yakuza game. 

 

Batting Center - A lot harder on the older games where the trick is to watch Kiryu (or other character) and wait to see the movement in their arm which is the cue to hit the button. In Yak 3 the target indicator disappears at the top difficulty and you'll need to use something (post it note etc, though check it doesn't damage your screen) in order to hit the targets. In Dragon Engine games, the batting center was made much easier with different bats increasing the ability to hit the ball easier. 

 

Catfights -  * Sigh * Worst of them all in my opinion. Only appears in one game thankfully and as a watered down, easier version in Kiwami called MesuKing which is card based and played in the arcade (lots of side stories tie into this). Completely RNG and/or luck based. Woman in skimpy outfits fighting each other where the outcome is pretty much random. Doesn't seem to be anything you can do to influence the outcome so just need to grind this to completion. 

 

Disco - Again, a bit of a rhythm game type scenario where the difficulty can get a bit tricky. Some people in this thread have had real trouble with it. I didn't think it was too bad but there were some difficult moments for definite. 

 

Golf - I found this quite tricky in Yakuza 3 and in some of the later games it becomes trickier as you essentially need to hit numbers on a giant board taking into account strength of shot, wind and other factors. Can be quite tricky. 

 

That's generally the gist of it. There are others but generally speaking these are the ones that pop up a lot. These are just the minigames though so distinct from things like the Coliseum or climax battles which can be their own separate challenge. 

 

Use Youtube, use everything at your disposal to get to grips with them. Some of them are tough either because of skill required or because of system limitations (the remastered collection) or RNG strife (several of them) but if you persevere they are doable. I platted them all last year (in order) 3,0,K1,K2,4,5,6,LAD, Fist of the North Star and Judgment (PS5) one after the other between March and July with Judgment on PS4 and Lost Judgment on PS5 coming later. I am due to do LAD and Lost Judgment on PS4 (Not cross save so like Judgment need to do them both from scratch) soon so they are very much plattable with some easier than others.

 

The final thing I recommend to anyone playing these games. Use the guides by CyricZ to assist you. This guy is a bit of a legend in the Yakuza game community and his guides are considered by many to be the gold standard and will help you out a lot when it comes to completion, particularly with Mahjong. I enclose the link to his Yakuza 0 guide below and you'll find one for every other game for the series (including Fist of the North Star and up to Lost Judgment) by clicking on his name.

 

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/816306-yakuza-0/faqs/74451

 

 

 

 

 

 

Awesome post. You deserve a like from me. ?

 

For the rarer fish in Yakuza 0 you pretty much have to have bait, particularly the Ghost Koi fish. Unfortunately to get the better bait you have to rely on RNG from the Dream Machines. 
 

Cat Fights are terrible. Easily the worst minigame in Yakuza 0. Don’t need to say anything more on them.

 

There’s Virtua Fighter in the Yakuza games? I assume they’re in the later games or the remastered Yakuza titles. I did all four arcade titles in Zero. 
 

The video posted in the trophy guide makes Shogi a cakewalk. Easy three objectives, nobody should have problems here. 
 

The Equipment Search minigame is pretty easy once you start to understand it. Definitely best to wait until you’ve done most everything else as you can just invest yen into all the agents so you can instantly grab their loot. I made an actual checklist on Microsoft Excel to keep track of what parts I need.

[xh117]

As a first yakuza plat this game is no joke lol so much content to get through and different skill sets needed. Often times you will hit a wall towards the plat but just keep trying and you'll eventually get it because a lot of it does come down to rng and practice. Mahjong is slightly harder too when it doesn't show what number the tiles are like in later yakuza entries. If you manage to make it through 0 you'll be able to plat the rest of the series a lot easier.

[AJ_Radio]

I thought the worst was over. But here I am absolutely stuck on the Climax Battles.

 

To the people who said they finished the Climax Battles in five to six hours..... ?

Edited January 28, 2022 by Stevieboy
unnecessary comment

[ness1216]

4 hours ago, AJ_Radio said:

I thought the worst was over. But here I am absolutely stuck on the Climax Battles.

 

To the people who said they finished the Climax Battles in five to six hours..... ?

 

 

Yeah that was quite a shock. After investing so much time in all the mini games and somehow surviving the batting cage and doing new game plus, I then started the climax battles and thought that was a platinum ender. 

 

The only helpful thing i can say is there are only a few really tough ones out of the whole lot. With perseverance it will eventually happen.

Edited January 28, 2022 by Stevieboy
clean up for edited post

[AJ_Radio]

1 minute ago, ness1216 said:

 

 

Yeah that was quite a shock. After investing so much time in all the mini games and somehow surviving the batting cage and doing new game plus, I then started the climax battles and thought that was a platinum ender. 

 

The only helpful thing i can say is there are only a few really tough ones out of the whole lot. With perseverance it will eventually happen.

 

The problem is you literally have little to no margin for error on some of these Climax Battles. Especially the ones where you cannot get hit once. One mistake and you're back to the beginning.

 

They're almost like those stupid Community Challenge DLC maps in Batman: Arkham Knight where you had to reach one million points to reach Killer Croc. Another one was doing the Monarch Theater with no less than four waves of enemies with four characters, all while keeping a freeflow combo. That bullshit kept me off earning all the trophies until six months after the DLC first released.

 

This is literally the hardest open world game I've played. One of the best I ever played, no doubt, but not an easy platinum. Those people who say this game isn't that hard or time consuming are just fooling themselves.

[Artty44]

29 minutes ago, AJ_Radio said:

 

The problem is you literally have little to no margin for error on some of these Climax Battles. Especially the ones where you cannot get hit once. One mistake and you're back to the beginning.

 

They're almost like those stupid Community Challenge DLC maps in Batman: Arkham Knight where you had to reach one million points to reach Killer Croc. Another one was doing the Monarch Theater with no less than four waves of enemies with four characters, all while keeping a freeflow combo. That bullshit kept me off earning all the trophies until six months after the DLC first released.

 

This is literally the hardest open world game I've played. One of the best I ever played, no doubt, but not an easy platinum. Those people who say this game isn't that hard or time consuming are just fooling themselves.

 

It's been too long now, but I think I found these easier because I did Yakuza 3 first and those ones were more annoying to me personally. That said, they weren't easy by any stretch and f anyone did say they thought it wasn't a challenge or time consuming I'd be very surprised, considering the 7/10 difficult and 140hr time estimate on the trophy guide which I'd consider to be accurate. 

 

[AJ_Radio]

Just now, Artty44 said:

 

It's been too long now, but I think I found these easier because I did Yakuza 3 first and those ones were more annoying to me personally. That said, they weren't easy by any stretch and f anyone did say they thought it wasn't a challenge or time consuming I'd be very surprised, considering the 7/10 difficult and 140hr time estimate on the trophy guide which I'd consider to be accurate. 

 

 

The trophy list doesn't deter how awesome this game is. It's definitely fantastic and I recommend this to anybody who is wanting something a little different. I'm sort of bored with western open world games since they all seem to have the same structure and setup.

 

These Climax Battles are to me on par if not a bit more difficult than the Batman Arkham combat challenges. Took me a long time to get thru them all, especially Arkham Knight. But this is definitely the most difficult portion in terms of skill, as the trophy guide perfectly demonstrated for Yakuza 0.

[Boorish]

1 hour ago, Artty44 said:

 

It's been too long now, but I think I found these easier because I did Yakuza 3 first and those ones were more annoying to me personally. That said, they weren't easy by any stretch and f anyone did say they thought it wasn't a challenge or time consuming I'd be very surprised, considering the 7/10 difficult and 140hr time estimate on the trophy guide which I'd consider to be accurate. 

 

It’s the reason why I will be skipping the remastered collection, just watch story playthroughs of them on YouTube, and jump into Yakuza 6 directly.  

[Artty44]

3 hours ago, boorish_brute said:

It’s the reason why I will be skipping the remastered collection, just watch story playthroughs of them on YouTube, and jump into Yakuza 6 directly.  

 

Up to you of course but I strongly advise against it. The remastered collection, though showing its age, is a crucial part of the series and you'd miss so much by doing what you've suggested. Everything in those games is achievable with perseverence and effort....sure some aspects are annoying but that's what makes them gratifying platinums and worth achieving.

 

i would happily plat all three of them again from scratch. 

[ShadyWARcotix]

23 minutes ago, Artty44 said:

 

Up to you of course but I strongly advise against it. The remastered collection, though showing its age, is a crucial part of the series and you'd miss so much by doing what you've suggested. Everything in those games is achievable with perseverence and effort....sure some aspects are annoying but that's what makes them gratifying platinums and worth achieving.

 

i would happily plat all three of them again from scratch. 

 

Same here. I miss the whole "first time" Yakuza experience. I still need to plat LAD. But this series is so good. I'm happy that I had the chance to to play those gems! Hopefully there will be a remaster of Dead Souls on ps4 too. But I don't believe it.

 

I remember that some of those Climax Battles were annoying. Like the one were you have to protect the microphone (don't know which Yakuza game it was) but I had the most trouble with ultimate battle round 5 from Y3. This was really hard tbh. 

 

If a climax battle gets annoying just take a break. 

[Boorish]

3 hours ago, Artty44 said:

 

Up to you of course but I strongly advise against it. The remastered collection, though showing its age, is a crucial part of the series and you'd miss so much by doing what you've suggested. Everything in those games is achievable with perseverence and effort....sure some aspects are annoying but that's what makes them gratifying platinums and worth achieving.

 

i would happily plat all three of them again from scratch. 

What would be your order of platinum difficulty ratings for all Yakuza games?

The remastered collection is on sale right now, and I want to buy it, but I might never get around to playing it, depending on how I feel after finishing the first 3 games. Yakuza 0's 100% list has sucked the joy out of playing the game.

Edited January 28, 2022 by boorish_brute

[You]

Aside from Yakuza 0, I think Yakuza 3 is the best one. So it would be a shame if you skipped it. Best soundtrack too.

Having said that it was the first Yakuza I played so I am kinda biased.

 

I could never finish the two final climax battles on Yakuza 3, defending the guy in his underwear. Could never do that one.

[GoDBoss173]

43 minutes ago, boorish_brute said:

What would be your order of platinum difficulty ratings for all Yakuza games?

The remastered collection is on sale right now, and I want to buy it, but I might never get around to playing it, depending on how I feel after finishing the first 3 games. Yakuza 0's 100% list has sucked the joy out of playing the game.

On a 1-10 scale with 5 being moderately difficult:

 

Y0: 7/10

Kiwami: 6/10 ( the haruka song can be pretty hard but the climax battles are easier)

Kiwami 2: 3/10

Y3: 8/10

Y4: 3.5/10

Y5: 4/10

Y6: 2/10

 

EDIT: Oh I just saw that you wanted the order:

 

Y3>Y0>Y1>Y5>Y4>Y2>Y6

 

Edited January 28, 2022 by GoDBoss173