Yes, because the idea of him liking Shenmue and not Yakuza seems mind-boggling to me. (Dan specifically I mean.) Yakuza is 10000% more a cool dude game than Shenmue.

I definitely would like to see it as an ER or at least Playdate. Not only because it would be entertaining, but it would also force him to play past the slow start and see the good parts. It's very easy to bounce off those games if you only play the first couple hours. They can be a slow burn, but once events get rolling they're pretty amazing.

Ideally I would like to see him start with 1, but the chances of them playing through all 5 (not counting spin-offs) seems impossible, so second best would be 4. It's a better jumping in point than 3 or 5. Wait, I just remembered Yakuza 0 is coming out soon. Maybe that one would be better. It's even set in the 80's.

Abso-fucking-lutely. Fuck Snake, Kazuma Kiryu is the baddest motherfucker in the history of video games and Majima is the most Dan Ryckert-ass character I can think of.

fucking YES

Dan would love Kazuma Kiryu, dude is like one of the most badass VG protags of all time

Yakuza is like Shenmue if Shenmue was a video game and things happened in it. Dan not liking Yakuza has been the most baffling thing to me because Kiryu fits Dan's cool guy mantra to a t. Would love to see him play through those games from the start.

I think Vinny would be a better driver in a Yakuza-based feature, but sure, Dan should give them another shot. I can't see him getting past the slow starts of any of them, but I bet he'd love them once things start popping off.

Sure, why not? I've never actually seen any part of any Yakuza game.

Dan reviewed Yakuza 3 for GI and wasn't too thrilled with it. Obviously the decade between Shenmue and Yakuza 3 accounts for part of the reasons Dan's opinions between the two games differ so much, but Yakuza 3 is actually the worst place to start with the Yakuza series, so I imagine that holds some importance as well.

I think if GBeast starts from the beginning, they could really get into it, because as @friendlyphoenix, @rubberluffy, and @TechnoSyndrome have mentioned, Kazuma is the most bad ass dude there ever was and fits Dan's cool guy fetish perfectly. I haven't played Yakuza 4 or 5 yet, but out of the first three, I think 1 has the best story so far, so I think that's an additional reason to start from the beginning.

I'm ready for a Dan Ryckuza series.

I think New Dan would totally love Yakuza if he tried.

I want to see Dan watch Vinny play Yakuza

I did send this tweet at him and he liked it, so he at least has the thought of a Yakuza Endurance or playthrough in his head, which is all we need folks. Dan playing Yakuza with Vinny and Alex would be freaking awesome.

Man a Yakuza ER would be the absolute best! Yakuza is basically just Shenmue, at least from what I've watched in the current ER having never played it, but with less time management/talking and more Metal Gear wackiness. If Dan did play through 3 for review and didn't like it I could understand since 3 is so slow to get going. It probably took me years to get off Okinawa.

Yes because I'd like to watch that. I'd never play them, but I'd love to watch them.

Dan should play Yakuza 6 sure (assuming it gets localised) his complaints about 3 still hold true for the rest of them so I dont think he'd have much of a different experience.

Dankuza

SHINJIIIIIII!!!

Would love to see him play them in release order, including the Japan only game Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan that's set in Edo period.

Yes because they are great games. I love running around and doing side things like going to hostess bars or help some random strangers on the street and end up in a ramen cooking mini game and crazy shit like that. If anything will make me upgrade my PS3 to PS4 it will be Yakuza 0 and 6. I bought my PS3 for Yakuza 3 and 4. Since then I've played the zombie spin off that I didn't like much but also Yakuza 5 that is great.

It is too bad that the HD versions of 1 and 2 didn't come out here but I have the PS2 versions and I might replay them one day. I love Yakuza 2 since it was my first game in the series.

Yes, having played both Shenmue and Yakuza games, Yakuza has a faster and simpler pacing, i recommend he starts at 3 because it includes movies detailing the events of the first two games, similar to how the Xbox version of Shenmue 2 has a movie for the first game.
Also this.

Dan and Alex feature. If you can get into them, the sheer nonsense makes it worth it.

I would love to see a feature of it, but they need to start from the beginning.

Dan's taste in games seems overly based on nostalgia. How can he like Shenmu and not love Yakuza?

@magmamud: Not necessarily. You can jump into 4 with a recap (as that's what I did), and 5 is kind of a "soft reboot" by jumping forward in time a bit.

...granted, I went back and played them all in order after that, but still. Also, for the love of (diety here) skip Dead Souls.

Obviously yes! Probably start with 4 or 5 though.

I'm going to let Yakuza 5 speak for itself here.

@mooseymcman: Hahah, that's amazing!

@redhotchilimist: There's a fistfight with a giant, bulletproof, and possibly demonic bear at one point, and a (lengthy) chain of side quests that lead to a rematch with said bear.

I have always thought, even before the Shenmue endurance run, that Dan would fucking love the Yakuza games

He should play some of it. I really liked playing through the first few hours of Yakuza 4. But there was a certain point where I just kinda got bored with it. I can't remember what turned me off from it.

I didn't expect anyone else to have the same opinion as me in that I hope he starts with 3 or 4. Three is relatively stand-alone from what I remember (and the hard-ass-yakuza-turned-orphanage-owner Kiryu will undoubtedly touch the Commando part of Dan's heart); meanwhile four has LOTS to do with previous games, but has a recap section just for beginners. Now that I think of it, did three have that, too? I can't remember.

Anyway, this definitely seems to be a resounding "YES!" from the community, so hopefully he'll follow through come next year. I also can't imagine two people to better have along for the ride than Alex and Vinny.

I think 4 is more of a soft reboot than 5. 4 spends like 80% of the game introducing brand new characters and Kiryu is practically a side character. 5 seemed much more dependent on the events of 4 and established characters.

Yeah, if someone is going to jump into the series from the PS3 era, I'd recommend starting with 4 instead of 5. I also think, despite 5 being "more ambitious" (in ways) and 5 having way more voice acting, 4 is just a better all around game. Or, at least a better paced game, with a better story.

@friendlyphoenix: Yeah Majima and Dan is like a match made in heaven

That bomb defusing scene in 2 is one of the most legitimately funny things I have ever seen in a video game

I have a feeling Dan would probably hate it. Even though he has rose colored glasses when it comes to Shenmue, he otherwise seems to not have much patience for games when they get a bit plodding and directionless. The Yakuza games are great, but the pacing can really be all over the place.

He should still give it a shot in spite of that, but I think the odds of him sticking with it and enjoying it would probably be higher in the context of something like an Endurance Run (hint, hint).

I had no idea he'd played and reviewed 3 already, seems like he really wasn't into it, which makes me think he probably wouldn't like playing any of them all that much. I still think Vinny should play 4 on the site with Dan along for the ride, he might actually enjoy it more if he doesn't have to actually play it.

I would love to watch Dan play a Yakuza game, or Vinny play while dan and alex watches, either way.

yes, because Yakuza 6 will have a gang made up of NJPW guys

What's up with the comments recommending they start with 3 or 4? The first two games are fantastic, Yakuza 1 being the one that started it all and having the brunt of Kiryu's character development, and 2 being incredible and arguably the best game in the entire series. The intro to 3 is an extremely slow game to start even for fans of the series, let alone people that have no attachment to the characters. Easily the worst game in the series, and Dan is already on record as hating it. 4 is a good starting point for people who don't have a PS2 or don't want to shell out the money for used copies of PS2 games, but given that Giant Bomb has played through six Mario Party games over the past few years I think they're fine with purchasing old games for content.

They should play the first one just so they can comment on the English dub.

Yakuza 5. Play it.

@TechnoSyndrome: If this had any chance of turning into a Metal Gear Scanlon or Vinnyvania like feature I would absolutely like to see them start with 1. But if I could only choose one to play it would be 4. (Or maybe 0.) Not only because it's a good stand-alone entry, but it's also a better encapsulation of what modern Yakuza is.

He should play it, but I hope they wouldn't make a video series about it. The one endurance run is plenty.

Yes but he should only start it when he goes back east.

Everyone should play the Yakuza games. Even Dan.

Only if he streams it.

Finish Dark Souls first, @danryckert.

@donchipotle said:

I think most of us would prefer to forget the star-studded English dub. But Mark Hamill was entertaining, at least. Dan is an English dub kinda guy, though. Last I heard, he'd only seen one subtitled film in his lifetime (and it was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).

@chaser324: Admitting the problem is the first step toward healing.

I hope this happens. A video series on the Yakuza games from the GBeast folks would be awesome. Between Dan's talk about this and the trailers for Yakuza 6 from TGS, I got a little excited and made this pic as a sort of wish for this to happen.