Yakuza: Like A Dragon Thoughts

I haven't played anything in the Yakuza series since Y2, but Y:LAD appeared on PS+ as a free game so I quickly downloaded it as the series has come up a bit since the early days. Some of what I think are my more interesting thoughts:

1. The JRPG fantasy integration is creative

The realistic Yakuza aesthetic doesn't lend itself well to the variety of enemies you encounter in a traditional JRPG so the developers made some interesting transitions to accommodate for fantastical human enemies.

When encountering fantastical human enemies, your characters move around the world and these human enemies initially appear like normal persons but when combat is triggered, there's a transitional outright transformation scene where they become.. more. These normal appearing people have a bright pillar of light engulf them and they become men wearing trashbags, heavily armored Samurai, giant sailors with pirate hats.. the list goes on. 

Not every enemy is fantastical. Particularly, many grounded in the story or world appear as they are -- when you fight the Bleach protestors they are exactly as they are in the world; normal men wearing the Bleach Japan T-shirts.

This fantastical JRPG transition doesn't just apply on the enemies, your party transforms too for combat! To whatever Job and costume you've chosen for them.

It's a serious story set in real world locations, with characters and issues grounded in reality. Gamey-ness is one thing, but the blend into the fantastical bridged by a transformation VFX is really fascinating. 

Why I think it works is to just imagine these fantastical enemies moving around in the world without the transformations. You'd have all sorts of questions about why the general population walking around don't take notice. It's a low effort fantasy bridge that isn't really explained and is taken for granted.

2. Poor Level Design partially stemming from the realistic setting

Segments of the game that occur in the urban spaces like buildings with small rooms and tight corridors don't work well. It's a particular nightmare with spiral staircases.

The monotony of those realistic spaces are boring and also make orientation slightly challenging. I often exit a fight and am not sure where I'm facing -- if I'm facing where I'm going or where I came from. 

This is particularly troubling because the problem is totally avoidable when the enemy locations in these dungeon areas are fixed, so encounters are predictable. Some small amount of handcrafted elements like a distinctive object serving as a landmark would generate a stronger sense of direction and orientation.

As it stands, the key levels and dungeons are forgettable.

3. Terrible design management around the difficulty spike

Everyone talks about the massive spike in Chapter 12. Just visit any gaming forum. 

People often end up arguing about the why, which is in itself interesting. You encounter a boss fight with two bosses who are essentially main characters in previous Yakuza games, so for them to be challenging makes totally sense. They can't be pushovers because it would damage the standing of the character in the world. It's a bit like Vin and The Rock in Fast and Furious. 

To me, the presence of the difficulty spike is not a huge problem, it's that it results in a totally unnecessary poor experience.

The game has an aggressive autosave system, and it autosaves before the boss fight. So if you're not the type to have many saves, that's it.

When you lose in the boss fight, you can choose to fight again or start from the beginning of the level (the bottom floor of the building). So if you're under-leveled, fighting again won't solve things but you think you could grind if you go to the beginning of the level. Bad news -- it's designed to be a stealth level. The enemies are few and you're supposed to minimize encounters.

The game could've easily given special accommodation by having the post-loss options include one that exits the building into the world so you can grind your way up before attempting the story level again. 

It's very thoughtless and is a dark blemish on the game design.