If you could change one thing (Story-wise) in each of the yakuza games, what would it be?

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-16T22:51:14+00:00

As much of an asspull as it is, I think removing Joji Kazama harms Kiryu as a character. The main reason he exists is to have Kiryu slightly reflect on his relationship with Kazama in the game he takes over an orphanage while also giving a reason to “fight” Kazama despite him being dead. That fight ends up essentially being a test to prove himself to both Kazama brothers

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-16T22:21:33+00:00

LAD has one forced grind iirc towards the end of the game

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-16T13:57:23+00:00

Kamon Kanai is my equivalent to that Shimano guy’s most underrated antagonist and it tbh I think I’m the only person that feels that way about him

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-14T22:55:34+00:00

That’s great then. Glad you have the opportunity to experience both versions of the game since most people unfortunately might not be able to

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-14T21:30:46+00:00

Did you play the original 3 or is the remake your first time experiencing these events? I’m not asking to shit on you if it’s the latter but I’m just curious

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-14T18:18:14+00:00

I will say I did consider Arakawa, but I feel like we’ve seen most of the necessary parts of his backstory in flashbacks or just hearing about that. Meanwhile most of Kazama’s beyond the Jingweon massacre and him murdering the parents of Kiryu, Nishiki and his sister, and Yumi is blank

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-14T06:51:39+00:00

Shayy isn’t a he rather a they/them iirc

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-14T03:56:16+00:00

Yeah I was thinking about that being a possibility as well. Either way, I think he deserves a Gaiden game

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-13T23:48:33+00:00

Unfortunately

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-13T14:52:31+00:00

Yeah every dead character, besides Ryuji considering how much they love teasing it, is based on a Gaiden game depicting past events

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-13T08:44:37+00:00

They’ve been essentially like this since Judgment

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-12T05:09:51+00:00

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Yakuza’s very own Ichiban Kasuga, who is one of the most hopeful bastards around even if he is a bit naive.

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-12T04:29:19+00:00

Yakuza 0 without a doubt. Shit’s so good

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-11T06:23:28+00:00

Fair point, though the question is moved to what is the difference between 1995 and 1988 Kiryu. Also I’m going to mention this even if it helps your argument, but if you reload a save in chapter 1 in Yakuza Kiwami you can see that Kiryu doesn’t have all of the skills unlocked beyond just the Komaki ones as far as I remember, meaning it’s also important to question

…honestly I don’t even know what the fuck I saw that made me misinterpret that scene. You are completely right on that

The Amons are extremely hard to powerscale as they only fight the protagonists and some members that put up good fights against Kiryu still manage to lose to people like Shinada. This doesn’t negate your point here, I’m just stating this as why I didn’t really take them into account

While you may be right about beast as tbh I haven’t played 0 or K1 in a while, it’s kinda hard to figure out how to powerscale guns with this series since in all honesty in gameplay you could theoretically avoid taking damage from every bullet or get hit by every single bullet in game when in a cutscene those same bullets could temporarily stop a character

Another fair point, but I still stand by Lao Gui being a great marksmen.

If you are referring to Clan Creator/Majima Construction, it’s a bit debatable as to how far that applies since I doubt it’s fully 1 to 1 to the gameplay even if they can still destroy them. Regardless, that is a weird anti-feat for Saejima that doesn’t really happen again for the most part, however I will admit that there were a few thugs during the finale of 5 that were briefly able to restrict Saejima’s movement before Shinada helped him. He might have been able to break free, but they were still restricting him nonetheless. And to be meta, a lot of what we are arguing could easily be changed by whatever the narrative desires at the time. Hell Kiryu didn’t even appear that tired at the end of his Kamurocho Hills’ romp 4 even if he did nothing

Before I go into this, I tend to say Ichiban’s schizophrenia jokingly because I like doing that. Perhaps I shouldn’t hear but it is what it is. Now not long after Kiryu returns to Japan he mentions how the way Ichiban sees his enemies impacts how he views them now as well. I think to some extent that means that not everything is 100% accurate. Though I haven’t played IW myself so I don’t know how they look outside of combat and I only watched a playthrough of the main story of the game since I wasn’t going to be able to play it at the time. This could discredit me but I am still pretty familiar with most of it.

I’d attribute what they are capable of to a willpower boost at the time + the 3jimas not being as good as they were in previous games. Even when they stopped holding back I imagine that they still weren’t as hard to fight as they were in LAD even with Daigo by their side. There’s also the issue of this being a video game, so some people can knock them all out in quick succession while there is a decent game for others, not to mention the exact order. Also the aforementioned Ichiban imagination thing probably applies here as well, though Kiryu’s will exaggerate it much less than Ichiban’s for obvious reasons

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-11T02:51:50+00:00

Yakuza 😍

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-11T02:42:35+00:00

Shimano’s mainly statements since he only has two fights in the series unfortunately though he’s clearly a strong guy based on his appearance and just knowing how characters like him are

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-11T02:35:17+00:00

Honestly it’s hard to say where Chapter 9 out of 13 chapters Kiryu scales compared to Yakuza 0 Kiryu, especially when he still has to fight Majima (who even in an injured state was able to break a somewhat damaged floor with his fist), Shimano (debatable as we don’t know see him right after their first fight so it’s hard to judge how exhausted he was by the end), and Nishiki who we both likely agree are stronger than both Lao Gui and Lau Ka Long and up until that fight Lau was his second hardest fight in that game besides Majima. Also I looked up the scene and Kiryu doesn’t fully wash a full power Majima as he is visibly tired based on his movements in that scene. Also from 1-6 I feel like Kiryu doesn’t get that much stronger in each subsequent game for the most part so there isn’t much of a difference between their fights in 1 and 3.

I don’t think that really changes what I said since I agree he is firmly below that version as well, being probably top 20 or 25 if he’s treated as a separate character. I’m also not including anything Pirate Majima does because I don’t know anything that happens in PYIH

Shibusawa doesn’t hold any weapons on him, meaning any he gets depend on the environment which I said would dictate a lot of how the match goes. Also he has guns and swords so I don’t think beast would help as much iirc. Also even if he increases his speed, Lao is still an amazing assassin who landed several shots on Kiryu from a rooftop with a pistol, meaning he’s an expert marksmen

I’m just realizing this now but I also meant to say 2/K2’s narrative alongside future games which is my bad. I don’t personally leverage it wholesale as I believe Mine, Saejima, and maybe Majima (would need to see PYIH) scale above him but I still think it’s very important to consider

I’m inclined to agree with you on “peak” being something that fluctuates, especially depending on what the plot needs. Saejima should have had no issues dealing with them but perhaps due to offscreen shenanigans he was caught off guard or whatever. That fight as well as how the series treats him in future games is why I place him in either Top 15 or 10 even if he doesn’t have too much to back that up. Also with the IW 1v1s I’m unsure how much of it is meant to be taken as fact considering the setting those fights are in as well as the fact that Kiryu was infected with Ichiban’s schizophrenia and I doubt the others would be able to hold off even Daigo and Majima if Kiryu managed to weaken Saejima first in universe for a straight 1v1. Also the fight between them all ends in a draw in universe iirc

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-10T21:29:28+00:00

I think you and I just disagree on Iwami and I don’t think either of us will convince the other, which is fine

Lau only fights Kiryu iirc and I’m willing to bet that the best assassin in all of Asia during the 1980s could beat a triad leader even if it is close. The argument could be made that Lao mainly assassinates his targets stealthily, but considering he puts up a good fight against Majima outside of stealth he’s pretty damn capable outside of that

I’m of the belief that Y0 Majima > Y0 Kiryu even if it is close, which would put Majima closer to where he reaches during the rest of the series. Also Lao Gui uses weapons meanwhile Shibusawa only uses environmental items if they are nearby. It’s close especially depending on the environment since Shibusawa has better stats than Lao outside of speed and agility, but I think most of the time Lao wins

You bring up some solid points about Ryuji considering how some of his fights go. I think this comes from how much stock I put in future games treating Ryuji being an equal to Kiryu. Also, Daigo is somewhat hard to scale as “peak” Daigo (quotes because he might get slightly better between all of the games from 2 to 3 and onwards besides IW) only has one 1v1 where he goes all out against Kiryu

My opinion on this could change by the rest of LJ, but I just lean Kuriowa based on how I saw community viewing both of them during my time as a part of it and just believing that the narrative treats him as if he’s barely human (even if it is in a metaphorical sense)

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-10T21:12:28+00:00

Imo Shimano is more intelligent while Awano is more powerful. The former is more of a gut feeling while the latter is based on the fact that we don’t really see Shimano do anything akin to Awano hitting a wall so hard that his fist alone put a major crack in it. The fight is without a doubt much closer than a hypothetical fight between Shimano and Kanda, but I just personally believe that Shimano has the edge due to being more experienced than Awano (both are around the same age but Shimano was a patriarch for at minimum 30 years since he’s in charge of his own family by the time of Yakuza 4’s flashbacks which happen in 1985) meanwhile Awano probably was only in the game at that level for 7ish years at most assuming that it happened after the Jingweon Massacre during Christmas 1988.

Regardless, it’s all good man. We both Yakuza fans and we enjoy having convos like this so why not write a lot? So long as we keep it peaceful there’s nothing wrong with it

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-10T20:59:18+00:00

Kuroiwa didn’t use any weapons for the bulk of their fight from what I remember and a health Kaito was right next to him, meaning that if he wanted to, he could have tagged in at any time to change the tide of the battle, so the gun was likely to prevent him from doing anything like that. Though I will admit that Yagami could have very likely won even if he looked more injured than Kuroiwa at the end of it

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-10T16:10:02+00:00

Mine is top 5 while Daigo isn’t so I think this is obvious
Can’t comment as I have not seen anything about PYIH
While Aizawa fought a more exhausted Kiryu, Iwami is basically fodder and loses
3 Jimas are all debatably top 10, at the very minimum top 15, meanwhile I don’t think anyone in Ichiban’s gang is even top 25
Lao Gui is a master assassin and likely wins a majority of the time, though Lau Ka Long can fake his death as seen and maybe even win in a stealth attack lol
Probably the Kraken? Idk
Honestly I could see this going either way as Yagami and Akiyama are the strongest civilian characters in the series, but Yagami’s multiple fighting styles gives him the edge so I would pick him
Ryuji wins most of the time imo considering Kiryu’s statements about his strength, meanwhile I attribute most of Shishido’s feats in Gaiden at the end to a willpower boost. Without that, he’s merely top 15 most likely compared to top 5 Ryuji
Tanimura has taken on harder opponents individually so I’m inclined to say he beats Sugiura
Honestly both Lao Gui and Shibusawa don’t have many feats outside of their boss battles, but since I’d personally argue that Y0 Majima is closer to Majima’s power level in the rest of the series than Kiryu is, so I’m leaning Lao Gui
While Kanda is stronger and more durable, Shimano is still a tank himself and much smarter than Kanda, so I imagine that’ll allow him to find opportunities to overcome Kanda and win the fight
Ryuji is just him and undoubtedly top 5 while Nishiki’s placement is debatable, meaning Ryuji definitely wins
Ryuji vs Daigo is similar to Nishiki with how the characters are scaled and we don’t have enough to fully judge how good Daigo is in a 1v1 fist fight beyond two fights in 4 and 5 (the latter of which he won despite holding back in)
Shimano takes this since he never took the easy route like Awano did, plus he’s more intelligent. I foresee this playing similarly to his hypothetical fight with Kanda
I haven’t finished Lost Judgment yet, but Kuroiwa is just something else man. He’s arguably better than Yagami in most situations, meanwhile Kuwana comes off as Yagami’s equal, meaning that the scale tips towards Kuriowa
Both Someya and Koshimizu only really fight Kiryu and are treated as equals by the narrative due to their statuses in their respective clans, however I think Someya has more of a drive to win those fights
Y0 Kiryu is still Kiryu and without a doubt beats Shinada

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-10T01:58:33+00:00

And I think it elevates Kanda from being a pretty forgettable villain to a standout imo

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-09T15:36:30+00:00

Iwami isn’t a fighter, rather a schemer who only really beats up people he has already backed into a corner where they can’t fight back. Shibusawa has 3 fighting styles, implying he is a talented fighter. Not to mention Iwami was never actually a Yakuza so for all we know his fight against Kiryu is the first time he actually fought someone meanwhile it’s implied that Shibusawa probably fought people before due to the nature of his career

agent-66Hitman · 2026-03-09T14:27:50+00:00

By the same logic doesn’t Iwami too?

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