Yakuza 3

Have you played both Y2 and Y3?

 

No, but the resolution difference alone makes a huge difference when playing on a big screen.

 

I played both on a 50 inch plasma. You could try that and give us your impressions.

 

Dude. Y2 = 480p. Y3 = 720p native.

I've played enough games to know that a 3x bumb in resolution does wonders to IQ.

 

This might be the one exclusive that might make me accelerate my timeframe for when I get a PS3.

Regards,
SB

 

I didn't find a 480p option in Y2, so all it can output is 480i (or maybe the PAL interlaced resolution). And I don't think anyone has found out the internal rendering resolution of Y3.

Also, image quality is not the only factor that decides the look of a game.

And wouldn't it be better if you actually played both games before you make comments of the actual look and feeling of them?

 

Are Y3 cutscenes pre-rendered like in Y2?

 

Most of them seem to be pre-rendered

 

The Y2 cutscenes looked pretty good thanks to it, but I was hoping we'd have in-engine stuff for Y3.

 

I'll be getting, but I can't help but feel releasing in such a crowded month is sending the game straight to the 2-month bargain bin. Sigh.

For reference, I didn't get either earlier game since I didn't have a PS2.

 

It's a pretty bad month to release this in. I'm not sure what to feel about Yakuza 3, I've played through 1 and 2 one after another, and by the end of 2, I feel a little burnt out from it. The main problem being that the combat system barely changed from 1, the animations were improved but barely, the moveset if I remember correctly were really similar, but with a different progression that allows you to choose which moves to learn. In 2 there were barely new areas and just the same old town, so I skipped all the remaining sidequests and finished the game.

Y3 judging from the JP demo doesn't look that much better than 2, I'm not sure if there were many things new, but it's almost like the transition from 1 to 2, just slightly better graphics and polishing, but everything else are about the same, with a different story, again you start in the same city.

It's not that the game can't be good with the same settings and same improved gameplay, but after going through 2 games, I'm not sure if I'll enjoy the third as much. Graphically, it's not that much better either, the demo was pretty blurry like some of the other upscaled games, and the animations seems to be the same as the PS2's version. I'm not going to pick up all the games day 1 between feb and march, it's going to be a tough choice for me, I still hope Yakuza 3 will do well, as it is one of the series I enjoy.

 

New Yakuza 4 trailer:


Shows the 4 main characters the player will be able to control. And the female leads.

 

Actually, the majority of the cutscenes in Yakuza 1 and 2 on PS2 were realtime, while virtually all the cutscenes in Yakuza 3 are pre-rendered. Yakuza 4 seems to go down the same route sadly.

 

Most of the stuff in Y4 looks realtime to me, but we could have seen different trailers of course.

I think a lot of the cutscenes in Y2 were FMV, but my memory could serve me wrong....

 

Both Y3 and (most likely) Y4 have pre-rendered cutscenes (like in Uncharted 2 for example) that use beefed-up in-game assets.
There were indeed some pre-rendered cutscenes in Y2, but most(90%) were realtime.

 

Yup Y1 & Y2 both had most of their cutscenes done in real time with beefed up visuals.

 

It's not like you can't beef up your cut-scenes properly in real-time either. The difference between RE5's real time cut-scenes and RE5's gameplay was an order of magnitude more pronounced than it was in Uncharted 2 despite the use of movies.
Usually I couldn't care less whether cut-scenes are rendered on the fly or just movies, but it is definitely cool when you see your alternate outfits in the many cut-scenes as well. (I mean who doesn't like Tribal Sheva in a cut-scene?)

 

Create Your Own Fighter in Yakuza 4:
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/01/30/yakuza_4_fighter/

 

Quite a reversal to the "Create a hostess" mode in the third game...

 

Heh, I forgot about that. They ran so much PR on the Y4 girls. I'd imagine they will play major roles in the game too.

From the Y3 demo, I think girls are good fun to karaoke with. I assume the KTV girl and girl friend sim will still stay in Y4 ?