Game:

Yakuza (2005)

Duration: 3:19:49

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Originally recorded: April 28, 2023
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While Back the Log Off! was essentially my most pressing side project last year, Play Extend!! is actually something that I’m trying to do between sessions on another major project. Of course, considering the fact that the series itself is an excuse to revisit older games I streamed previously, it only makes sense that it would fall on the back burner. Still, with the pilot under my belt, it’s time for me to sink my teeth into something a bit more significant.

I’m not going to lie: revisiting the Yakuza games I streamed in years past was actually what inspired this project in the first place. Generally, when I’ve been playing the Yakuza games on my own, I don’t tend to count them as “done” until I’ve seen every single substory and fought the secret boss. And as it turns out, both of those traditions started with the very first game. Of course, my audience wasn’t particularly fond with the Yakuza games in the first place, so it felt appropriate to cut things short for the livestreams. Besides, I’d already played through the first game’s remake – and intend to do the same with Kiwami 2 at some point down the line – why just count the newer versions as my “full playthroughs” and just move on? Well, frankly, leaving things how they were never really sat right with me… and that’s how Play Extend!! came to be.

Admittedly, revisiting Yakuza 1 didn’t quite go according to my expectations – both in a good way and a bad way. Originally, I was led to believe that I’d have to complete the dating progress for all six (!!!) hostesses to get my shot at you-know-who. Fortunately, it turns out that’s not the case. On the other hand, I was expecting Premium Adventure Mode to work similarly to the way that it did in later games… and while I’ve heard that Yakuza 2 handled it much the same way as 3 and beyond, the very first game does not. Rather than essentially continuing from my status when I finished the game, Adventure Mode in Y1 essentially forces players to start from scratch. No substories completed, back down to Level 1, no items, none of Komaki’s techniques, not even the experience you’d have stashed away from clearing the story mode. It was a bit demoralizing at first, but I learned to accept it pretty quickly.

That being said, there was a bit of a learning curve, so pretty much the entire first hour was a wash. At first, I was shocked that I kept nothing from my main playthrough. Then I ended up stubbornly trying to finish a mission I’d accidentally roped myself into… and got my ass handed to me multiple times. To make matters worse, the exact same thing happened when I finally relented and reloaded my save. Well, aside from the fact that the second time around, I gave up pretty much immediately. As it would turn out, the third try *was* the charm and I ended up making significant progress, despite wasting so much time at the start. In fact, I’ve already done more substories than I did during my original playthrough. My gut tells me that this whole thing is going to take me three sessions to finish up, but I wouldn’t be shocked if I only have a handful of substories left after next time.

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