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long ago, in the summer of 2018, i made a decision that would go on to alter the very course of my life. since then, i have never regretted this decision, and in fact it has caused me to better understand myself as a person. i have learned many lessons, improved my skills in many different pursuits, and spent countless hours honing my craft. people on the outside who don't understand might say i'm wasting my time, but those in the know are aware that i'm not only doing the right thing, i'm doing what i'm supposed to.
that's right, i'm talking about the yakuza/ryu ga gotoku/like a dragon series. (what else would i be talking about?) this journey that started six and a half years ago recently finished (at least until february). i didn't set out with the intention of platinuming (distinct from 100%ing as we will soon see) each game in the series, but there's just so much game per game in these games that it felt like the best way to get my money's worth for each experience. since this journey started, three new games have been released and one has seen a remaster and western localization for the first time. i have platinumed those, too. this journey has been long and it has been hard. there were times i felt like i could no longer see the sun. but i did it.
what do i have to show for it, apart from some platinum trophy jpegs on my playstation profile? honestly, nothing. i'm definitely not the first person to accomplish this, but at the same time it's not like there are tons of people who have done it. if i had to hazard a guess, i'd say maybe a hundred to a thousand people (at least, people with Western PSN accounts--i'm sure a lot of people have pulled this off in rgg's home country of japan). but this experience does grant me the perspective of knowing which plats are harrowing and which are a walk in the park.
i learned how to play riichi mahjong for this (don't ever come at me with that mahjong solitaire bullshit) and it's one of my favorite minigames in the series now. i know how to play koi-koi, oicho-kabu, cho-han, and cee-lo. i have seen so many FMVs of JAV actresses. i can navigate kamurocho with my eyes closed. i am better for all of this. probably.
so, let's rank. here are the games i am ranking in the order i played them:
Yakuza 0
Yakuza Kiwami
Yakuza Kiwami 2
Yakuza 3
Yakuza 4
Yakuza 5
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Like a Dragon: Ishin!
we will be ranking in ascending order, and we will be starting with one honorable mention before moving onto our top ten
Honorable Mention: Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
Rarity (the percentage of people (who have launched the game at least once) who have earned the platinum): 14.2%
Completion List Mandatory?: No
the game that bridges kiryu's gap between 6 and 7 is a short little number that i knocked out in one weekend. the main story has only five chapters and the plat is not at all demanding. compared to some of the other games it's almost relaxing.
10. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
Rarity: 3.3%
Completion List Mandatory?: No
in this one you get to play base ball
9. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Rarity: 9.8%
Completion List Mandatory?: No
the most recent game in the series! why does it rank as a harder plat than y6 despite almost one out of every ten people earning the plat? well, there's a DLC pack that comes with the deluxe edition of the game that includes some post-game dungeons that make grinding way easier. i earned the plat without that DLC pack (although i did eventually get it and clear it all) and let me tell you it was a slog. the hardest part was just plain getting ichiban to level 70. not supremely difficult in the grand scheme of things, but easy pickings if you've got a post-game dungeon to mess around in.
8. Yakuza Kiwami 2
Rarity: 2.6%
Completion List Mandatory?: Yes
the two Kiwami titles on the list are thus named because they are from-the-ground-up remasters of their respective games, which were the first two released in the series. tidying up the plat after finishing my regular playthrough didn't take too long at all. even though this requires you to do the completion list to, well, completion, the completion list isn't as demanding as some of the other titles.
7. Yakuza Kiwami
Rarity: 0.5%
Completion List Mandatory?: Yes
and here's the other kiwami title! don't let that rock-bottom rarity fool you, this plat is just a touch tougher than yk2. the completion list is decently forgiving, although i did get pretty frustrated with the split games in bowling and the finicky billiards controls. honestly, the completion list was pretty easy. the hardest part is doing all of haruka's requests in the post-game.
6. Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Rarity: 1.7%
Completion List Mandatory?: No
ah, the first true rpg in the series! and a far harder plat than its sequel! what gives? well, yet again, we have a postgame dungeon to reckon with. however, rather than being a good way to grind available through DLC, this particular postgame dungeon is one that you can't even think about taking on without all of your characters at level 99. and the kicker is that THIS postgame dungeon is only available after you clear ANOTHER postgame dungeon that's also no cakewalk.
5. Like a Dragon: Ishin!
Rarity: 0.9%
Completion List Mandatory?: Yes
Diligence Records Mandatory?: Yes
platinumed as of yesterday, and it was mostly easy. emphasis on the mostly. as you can see there is a completion list AND a "diligence records" that basically functions as a second completion list. the diligence records is easy, some of them are just kind of time consuming. the completion list, however? it had the dreaded Equipment section. not collecting each different piece of equipment--CRAFTING it. and not just the equipment, but the seals that can also come with that equipment. it's so grueling that part of the guide is instructions on how to manipulate RNG and savescum in order to get the seals you need for completion. the completion list also includes all of the minigames, of course, including the one that is a bullet hell about not getting distracted while getting your bone on. no, seriously. notice how that video is subtitled The Platinum Ender. i'm still not sure how i did it.
4. Yakuza 0
Rarity: 0.8%
Completion List Mandatory?: Yes
the one that started it all, at least for me and at least in the chronology of the series. out of all of the games on a modern engine (more on that in a bit) this one is far and away the most grueling to plat. the other games allow you to new game+ into legend mode (clearing on legend mode is generally a requirement for a yakuza plat). yakuza 0 says fuck you, you're starting from the beginning with nothing. the other games eschew missable trophies. yakuza 0 has eight. when calculating gambling earnings for the purposes of completion, the other games are generally forgiving and only count money you earn and not money you lose. yakuza 0 does it by session. if you win a million yen and then lose a million yen and then exit out of the minigame, you will have 0 yen towards completion. it never puts you into the negatives, which is about as nice as it gets. not to mention it's not just one but two protags' worth of stuff, which is double the fun for twice as nice. or something. but if you thought two protags was a lot...
3. Yakuza 4
Rarity: 2.7%
Completion List Mandatory?: No
so. yakuza 3, 4, and 5 were originally released on the ps3, and they were given a coat-of-paint style rerelease on ps4/ps5. unlike the two kiwami games, these games were NOT rebuilt form the ground up and, as a result, moving from yakuza kiwami 2 to yakuza 3 remastered felt like leaping back in time. they're not bad games, to be sure, but there were some growing pains. after all, those three games are the three games at the top of this list. 4 is the first one we see here. it doubles the number of protags from yakuza 0, and three of them are at least worthwhile and likable! (all my love to kiryu, akiyama, and saejima. zero love to the cop tanimura) the completion list isn't necessary here, and in a different world i actually might have this be a little lower on the list, but having to finish tanimura's substories was something i wanted so little to do with that it took me a year between completing the game and going back for the plat.
2. Yakuza 5
Rarity: 1.6%
Completion List Mandatory?: Yes
yakuza 4 has 4 protags. yakuza 5 has, you guessed it, 5! kiryu, akiyama, and saejima return from the previous game. tanimura is replaced by my favorite yakuza character: shinada. here is my shinada pitch. he has no money. he loves baseball. he loves milfs. milfs love him. he's extremely scammable. if you try to pick up a baseball bat during battle while playing as him, he will solemnly shake his head and softly set the bat back down on the ground. that is an instrument of joy and not of anger. the fifth protagonist is none other than budding idol haruka sawamura, and she doesn't battle with her fists, she battles with her dancing skills. y5 is a polarizing game among fans of the series. its story is, sure, bullshit, but these games are basically soap operas. they've all got bullshit stories. that's what makes them good. personally, it's one of my favorite games of the entire series. the plat clocks in as the second-hardest because of the sheer breadth it has. the completion list is no joke here, especially because it's got that dreaded Equipment section. sooooo many trips to the weapon crafter.
1. Yakuza 3
Rarity: 1.6%
Completion List Mandatory?: No*
here it is. if you go from playing 0, kiwami, and kiwami 2 straight into 3 remastered like i did, it feels like getting socked in the jaw. that's part of why this clocks in at #1, but there's a ton of other factors. 3 doesn't have 3 protags, it's just kiryu, but kiryu has to do so much here and with so little polygons to work with. the most grueling aspect of this isn't the completion list--there is one but you don't have to complete it all the way. what you do have to "complete" is the minigames, and there's the rub. the trophy for completing all the minigames is the rarest beyond the platinum at 1.8%, rarer even than finishing the game in legend mode. i'm not going to mince words here. some of these minigames fucking suck, dude. this was the darkest my journey ever got, the closest i ever came to throwing in the towel on platting all these games. i persevered, but it took blood, sweat, tears, luck, and like fifty other different variables. there is an in-universe arcade game named boxcelios that will eat you for lunch. you have to shoot five strokes under in nine holes of golf in a golf minigame in a ps3 game. and then there's the batting cages. good god. i almost put a fist and a controller through my tv. but i fucking did it.
anyway there's that
that's right, i'm talking about the yakuza/ryu ga gotoku/like a dragon series. (what else would i be talking about?) this journey that started six and a half years ago recently finished (at least until february). i didn't set out with the intention of platinuming (distinct from 100%ing as we will soon see) each game in the series, but there's just so much game per game in these games that it felt like the best way to get my money's worth for each experience. since this journey started, three new games have been released and one has seen a remaster and western localization for the first time. i have platinumed those, too. this journey has been long and it has been hard. there were times i felt like i could no longer see the sun. but i did it.
what do i have to show for it, apart from some platinum trophy jpegs on my playstation profile? honestly, nothing. i'm definitely not the first person to accomplish this, but at the same time it's not like there are tons of people who have done it. if i had to hazard a guess, i'd say maybe a hundred to a thousand people (at least, people with Western PSN accounts--i'm sure a lot of people have pulled this off in rgg's home country of japan). but this experience does grant me the perspective of knowing which plats are harrowing and which are a walk in the park.
i learned how to play riichi mahjong for this (don't ever come at me with that mahjong solitaire bullshit) and it's one of my favorite minigames in the series now. i know how to play koi-koi, oicho-kabu, cho-han, and cee-lo. i have seen so many FMVs of JAV actresses. i can navigate kamurocho with my eyes closed. i am better for all of this. probably.
so, let's rank. here are the games i am ranking in the order i played them:
Yakuza 0
Yakuza Kiwami
Yakuza Kiwami 2
Yakuza 3
Yakuza 4
Yakuza 5
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Like a Dragon: Ishin!
we will be ranking in ascending order, and we will be starting with one honorable mention before moving onto our top ten
Honorable Mention: Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
Rarity (the percentage of people (who have launched the game at least once) who have earned the platinum): 14.2%
Completion List Mandatory?: No
the game that bridges kiryu's gap between 6 and 7 is a short little number that i knocked out in one weekend. the main story has only five chapters and the plat is not at all demanding. compared to some of the other games it's almost relaxing.
10. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
Rarity: 3.3%
Completion List Mandatory?: No
in this one you get to play base ball
9. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Rarity: 9.8%
Completion List Mandatory?: No
the most recent game in the series! why does it rank as a harder plat than y6 despite almost one out of every ten people earning the plat? well, there's a DLC pack that comes with the deluxe edition of the game that includes some post-game dungeons that make grinding way easier. i earned the plat without that DLC pack (although i did eventually get it and clear it all) and let me tell you it was a slog. the hardest part was just plain getting ichiban to level 70. not supremely difficult in the grand scheme of things, but easy pickings if you've got a post-game dungeon to mess around in.
8. Yakuza Kiwami 2
Rarity: 2.6%
Completion List Mandatory?: Yes
the two Kiwami titles on the list are thus named because they are from-the-ground-up remasters of their respective games, which were the first two released in the series. tidying up the plat after finishing my regular playthrough didn't take too long at all. even though this requires you to do the completion list to, well, completion, the completion list isn't as demanding as some of the other titles.
7. Yakuza Kiwami
Rarity: 0.5%
Completion List Mandatory?: Yes
and here's the other kiwami title! don't let that rock-bottom rarity fool you, this plat is just a touch tougher than yk2. the completion list is decently forgiving, although i did get pretty frustrated with the split games in bowling and the finicky billiards controls. honestly, the completion list was pretty easy. the hardest part is doing all of haruka's requests in the post-game.
6. Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Rarity: 1.7%
Completion List Mandatory?: No
ah, the first true rpg in the series! and a far harder plat than its sequel! what gives? well, yet again, we have a postgame dungeon to reckon with. however, rather than being a good way to grind available through DLC, this particular postgame dungeon is one that you can't even think about taking on without all of your characters at level 99. and the kicker is that THIS postgame dungeon is only available after you clear ANOTHER postgame dungeon that's also no cakewalk.
5. Like a Dragon: Ishin!
Rarity: 0.9%
Completion List Mandatory?: Yes
Diligence Records Mandatory?: Yes
platinumed as of yesterday, and it was mostly easy. emphasis on the mostly. as you can see there is a completion list AND a "diligence records" that basically functions as a second completion list. the diligence records is easy, some of them are just kind of time consuming. the completion list, however? it had the dreaded Equipment section. not collecting each different piece of equipment--CRAFTING it. and not just the equipment, but the seals that can also come with that equipment. it's so grueling that part of the guide is instructions on how to manipulate RNG and savescum in order to get the seals you need for completion. the completion list also includes all of the minigames, of course, including the one that is a bullet hell about not getting distracted while getting your bone on. no, seriously. notice how that video is subtitled The Platinum Ender. i'm still not sure how i did it.
4. Yakuza 0
Rarity: 0.8%
Completion List Mandatory?: Yes
the one that started it all, at least for me and at least in the chronology of the series. out of all of the games on a modern engine (more on that in a bit) this one is far and away the most grueling to plat. the other games allow you to new game+ into legend mode (clearing on legend mode is generally a requirement for a yakuza plat). yakuza 0 says fuck you, you're starting from the beginning with nothing. the other games eschew missable trophies. yakuza 0 has eight. when calculating gambling earnings for the purposes of completion, the other games are generally forgiving and only count money you earn and not money you lose. yakuza 0 does it by session. if you win a million yen and then lose a million yen and then exit out of the minigame, you will have 0 yen towards completion. it never puts you into the negatives, which is about as nice as it gets. not to mention it's not just one but two protags' worth of stuff, which is double the fun for twice as nice. or something. but if you thought two protags was a lot...
3. Yakuza 4
Rarity: 2.7%
Completion List Mandatory?: No
so. yakuza 3, 4, and 5 were originally released on the ps3, and they were given a coat-of-paint style rerelease on ps4/ps5. unlike the two kiwami games, these games were NOT rebuilt form the ground up and, as a result, moving from yakuza kiwami 2 to yakuza 3 remastered felt like leaping back in time. they're not bad games, to be sure, but there were some growing pains. after all, those three games are the three games at the top of this list. 4 is the first one we see here. it doubles the number of protags from yakuza 0, and three of them are at least worthwhile and likable! (all my love to kiryu, akiyama, and saejima. zero love to the cop tanimura) the completion list isn't necessary here, and in a different world i actually might have this be a little lower on the list, but having to finish tanimura's substories was something i wanted so little to do with that it took me a year between completing the game and going back for the plat.
2. Yakuza 5
Rarity: 1.6%
Completion List Mandatory?: Yes
yakuza 4 has 4 protags. yakuza 5 has, you guessed it, 5! kiryu, akiyama, and saejima return from the previous game. tanimura is replaced by my favorite yakuza character: shinada. here is my shinada pitch. he has no money. he loves baseball. he loves milfs. milfs love him. he's extremely scammable. if you try to pick up a baseball bat during battle while playing as him, he will solemnly shake his head and softly set the bat back down on the ground. that is an instrument of joy and not of anger. the fifth protagonist is none other than budding idol haruka sawamura, and she doesn't battle with her fists, she battles with her dancing skills. y5 is a polarizing game among fans of the series. its story is, sure, bullshit, but these games are basically soap operas. they've all got bullshit stories. that's what makes them good. personally, it's one of my favorite games of the entire series. the plat clocks in as the second-hardest because of the sheer breadth it has. the completion list is no joke here, especially because it's got that dreaded Equipment section. sooooo many trips to the weapon crafter.
1. Yakuza 3
Rarity: 1.6%
Completion List Mandatory?: No*
here it is. if you go from playing 0, kiwami, and kiwami 2 straight into 3 remastered like i did, it feels like getting socked in the jaw. that's part of why this clocks in at #1, but there's a ton of other factors. 3 doesn't have 3 protags, it's just kiryu, but kiryu has to do so much here and with so little polygons to work with. the most grueling aspect of this isn't the completion list--there is one but you don't have to complete it all the way. what you do have to "complete" is the minigames, and there's the rub. the trophy for completing all the minigames is the rarest beyond the platinum at 1.8%, rarer even than finishing the game in legend mode. i'm not going to mince words here. some of these minigames fucking suck, dude. this was the darkest my journey ever got, the closest i ever came to throwing in the towel on platting all these games. i persevered, but it took blood, sweat, tears, luck, and like fifty other different variables. there is an in-universe arcade game named boxcelios that will eat you for lunch. you have to shoot five strokes under in nine holes of golf in a golf minigame in a ps3 game. and then there's the batting cages. good god. i almost put a fist and a controller through my tv. but i fucking did it.
anyway there's that
