I skip the majority of the mini-game achievements, unless they're tied to a side-quest, and even then I might skip it if it's too much of a pain in the ass. The story driven side-quest are what matter to me. Anything beyond that I generally only dabble with here and there before I move on.

Yakuza games give you a lot to do, but you are definitely not obligated to do it all. If you're no longer having fun playing the game that's more than enough of a sign you should move on to something else.

I am only on my second Yakuza game, but for both 0 and Kiwami (which I am finishing now), I have completed all side stories and the skill trees. That means mostly completing things like pocket circuit and the cabaret/club stuff but I generally only dabble a bit at the other minigames. I do usually get a bit extra poker and mahjong in, though.

I do all this before heading into the final confrontation, as I don't really like to go back in afterwards.

All sub stories, mini games if they involve substories.

Never Shogi.

Recently played through 0, my first Yakuza game. I got the platinum trophy. I don't really see myself doing that with further entries in the series; I just did it with 0 cause it was my first and I just didn't want to leave that world just yet. I definitely wouldn't ever play Cho-Han, Koi-koi or Shogi again. Had a good time with most of the other stuff, though.

Definitely will always do all the sub stories, though.

As much as I'd love to 100% these games, the minigames usually irritate the hell out of me and I wind up wanting to eventually just get through them. I'd say I knock out probably half the sidequests and then wind up pushing hard to finish the story.

I completely suck ass at Shogi and Mahjong, but otherwise I complete whatever substories I can stumble across during my initial playthrough. As to Y6 specifically, I just felt compelled to complete the baseball subplot and the new minigame with the NJPW bosses before moving on to Yakuza Kiwami.

In 0 and the Kiwamis I did all the substories (that weren't attached to mini games like Shogi, Mahjong, those dang slot cars) and pretty much tried to wrap up everything I physically could before the main confrontation. In 6, I chilled out and just did whatever I wanted as it came up. Ended up doing a bunch of mini-game and even substories after the ending. Which was a bit weird. But I would say don't push it. I almost burned out on Yakuza games doing that, hence my strategy change for 6.

It's not like you really need to be 110% powered to finish the game. Unless there are moves you really want to use during that last fight I'd say you're probably good to go.

I do the vast majority of sidestories. So far the only one I've done all the sidestories in is Yakuza 6.

I generally do minigames when I enjoy them, so I usually play the arcade games, the more unique mini games (like the dice game from Judgment or spearfishing in Yakuza 6), I play koi koi, poker, and blackjack, etc.

I have a dream where someday I will go through and get Platinum trophies on all the Yakuza games but it can be a lot of stuff in some of them! So in lieu of that, at the very least, I'd like to play through all of them on Legendary.

I'll wrap up as many side missions as I can before the endgame. Usually just looking at the map, seeing if there are any obvious ?s around and if not, it's time to end it. I'll come back in premium adventure to wrap up any other ones you sometimes need to be with someone to trigger. As for the minigames I'll play the hostess club stuff all day, but I found myself burning out on stuff like pocket circuit racer or the drone races in Judgment.

But like some others I absolutely hit a wall with mahjong and the other Japanese gambling games. I'd love nothing more than to 100% one of these games because I love them so much but man I just can't do it.

I started with Yakuza 0 as my first game and then Kiwami when it released. From the release of Kiwami in August I played through 2-5 that winter and 6 about a year later (yes, I played the PS2 version since I couldn't wait for Kiwami 2).

Now having said that most of the minigames are fun to dabble in as I go along, but the side missions are where it's at. You have to let these games breathe and only do as much as makes you happy. When it gets to be a slog it's time to move on.

All substories as soon as they are available. Some minigames I engage in, but not everything (I am mediocre in rhythm games, and completely awful in gambling games, both eastern and western). Hated that Yakuza 0's real estate sidequest was tied to minigame activities.

I have played through Y0, YK1 & YK2. I didn't see a choice that really reflected what I do, so I picked the second one. I grind out the things I have fun with. The substories are definitely a highlight of the games, but (with the exception of YK2, because you get an item that shows you where they are), I didn't seek them out (unless they had a reward for something I was enjoying). I have no desire to platinum a Yakuza game (mahjong and hardest difficulty are a big reason), so I play what I enjoy and (barring it being a main quest), if I don't enjoy something I stop doing it.

@hermes: What minigame was it tied to? I only remember building my real estate and assigning supervisors, then having a battle.

@ginormous76: The details are a little blurry, but the quest has you battle against the 5 billionaires of Kamurocho. To unlock the second boss, you have to get over some points on the scoreboards of arcade machines. There is another one that has a similar restriction with karaoke and dancing.

I just finished the sixth game a few hours ago. I enjoyed the entire series. So, as for the question, the closest is probably choice number two. I would have liked to do all side quests of course, but the majority of the Yakuza games don't have what they call quest finders, where you know where all the side quests are, as they're viewed on the map. I didn't want to run through the map or maps again and again to get every one of them, so in some games, I did the majority, or all of them, while in others I either did half or ran through the story more or less.

Although I'm curious, when I hit the credits in one game, I just wanted to move onto the next Yakuza, so I never really went back. That said, I feel I got what I wanted out of the series up to this point, so no real regrets. I stopped doing all side quests in three. I did them all in Kiwami 1 & 2, but three I noticed there was no tracker, and after I finished the main quest I checked to see how many more side quests I had, and there were at least 20 more, so that's when I stopped going after all of them.

I wish I had written down the time it took me to complete the games so I can add up how long it took me to finish the series in its entirety. Oh, and about the mini-games, I didn't care for them. They're neat distractions, and there is some fun to be had; they're not badly made, but it's not my favorite stuff to do in them so I made it a point to try them all once at least. It wasn't until five and six where I just gave up on that.

Lastly, I generally like to play games on just hard now, but since the combat in the Yakuza games aren't what I go to them for, I just played through them all on easy. That means that upgrading wasn't necessary for the most part. I did, however, do it in one and two. Not sure if I'm going to play Judgment and though I may play 7, I can't say it's one of my most anticipated games of the year.

@hermes: Oh right, you had to do a challenge just to prove yourself to them. I remember now. Totally forgot, because it was one and done.

I've played all of them, minus the Kiwamis and samurai games, and it kinda depends on how much I'm enjoying them. Usually I do all the substories if I can (minus usually the very last one cause it's hard and I'm a scrub) but for like, Yakuza 3 which I didn't really like, I skipped a lot of the side stuff and just went for the story. Same kinda goes for the "big" minigames, the hostess management with Majima in 0 was great, but the tower defense thing in 6 was, eh. The platinum always seems really annoying because doing shogi and stuff is just hell. In Judgment there is a town friend you get through doing speed mahjong and I just did it over and over until I got lucky lol.

Not as much as I used to. I get to a point with the characters that I just want to close it out. It's not like the games are tough to get through.

Would just like to add that I'm currently trying to get past Jo Amon in Kiwami so I can then finish the game. I've worked on the battle for probably about an hour over multiple attempts, and my best result was getting his second form down to the yellow health bar. Fuck that guy.

I've only played Yakuza Kiwami and about seven hours of Yakuza Zero. Like most everybody here, I've fallen into the same rhythm as most "open world" games somewhere in the middle chapters where I'm completely focused on side content and really meandering through the story content, but then at some point either the rewards become too inconsequential, or I stop stumbling across side content so frequently, or the story really picks up and I dig my heels in to focus on that instead.

I almost always finish games with this amount of content somewhere around the 50% completion mark, I'd say. With Yakuza specifically I skip most of the mini-game stuff; the UI for them is almost uniformly awful and they mostly have a half-assed feel to them compared to Rockstar's offerings. The only real exception has been the dating sim stuff since it leads to more reveals of odd quirks of Japanese culture I find really charming.

@redwing42: tbf the Amon Clan are supposed to be optional endgame bosses and thus stupid fucking hard to finish off.

Oh, I know... I ended up backing out of the battle, picked up a few more healing items and repair kits and outlasted him. I could never really get a good sense of timing on the Tiger Drop. No matter, all done now. Will probably finish up the game tomorrow and take a bit of a break before moving on to Kiwami 2.

I did check my completion percentage for fun, and it was around 70%. Mostly casino stuff that I skipped over.