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(upbeat music)

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- In 2005, the world was
introduced to Kazuma Kiryu,

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a gangster struggling to leave behind

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a life of brutal crime.

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Kiryu's tale kicked off the
"Yakuza" series of games,

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now known as "Like a Dragon."

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The games have featured
incredibly detailed renditions

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of real world environments
and beat 'em up gameplay.

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In 2020, the series pivoted
to turn-based combat

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and RPG mechanics, along
with a new protagonist.

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with the release of the ninth game,

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"Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth,"

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we thought it was time to really dig in

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to what made the "Yakuza" series,

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now known as "Like a Dragon,"
resonate with so many.

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Welcome to "Total Recall.:

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I'm Claire Jackson,
staff writer at Kotaku,

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and I'm joined today by
Editor-in-Chief Jen Glennon.

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- Hey. Hi.

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Thanks for having me.

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- So Yakuza was initially
marketed to the US back in 2005

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as sort of like the Japanese GTA.

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That's kind of not the case.

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What makes the series
so different from GTA?

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- Well, one, there's not
that many vehicles in it.

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There's a few like car
chase things over the years

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in like Yakuza one I wanna say.

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But I think what makes
the series really unique

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is it's kind of like off the wall humor

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and like assembly of like
weird secondary characters.

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And even though, you know, as a Yakuza,

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your job is kind of like beating

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the living (bleep) out of people,

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like you're also helping people a lot.

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You're bringing like a businessman

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a pack of tissues in a public toilet,

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or you're helping an old
lady get her handbag back.

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So there's this just kind
of like weird tonal shift

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where it's very high drama,

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but then alternately just very absurd

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and very weird and very goofy.

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- Yeah, the absurdity really
sort of caught my attention

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starting with "Yakuza: Like a Dragon."

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Just seeing the trailers,
I was like, what is this?

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And with the crawfish and...

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(both laughing)

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- [Jen] The crawfish, who's a big player

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in "Infinite Wealth" too.
- I know. Yeah.

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- [Jen] Like there's a whole
romance arc for the crawfish.

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- But with such a long series,
like what is a good place

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for people to start with this one?

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- Hmm. I mean, I have three
answers to this. (laughs)

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Like, I think if you really
wanna play "Infinite Wealth"

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and you're really captivated
by all the Hawaii stuff,

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then it's direct predecessor,

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which is "Yakuza: Like a Dragon,"

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the one that came out in 2020.

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It's also a turn-based RPG.

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That is a great place to start

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because "Infinite Wealth" like picks up

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right where that left off.

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If you want kind of like a self-contained

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like vertical slice,
I guess you could say,

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of everything that Yakuza is,

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I think "Yakuza Kiwami
2" has all the absurdity,

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all the set peace battles.

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Like it's not too far along in
the lore where you feel like,

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oh, I'm missing out about a decade

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of relationships and history here.

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You're pretty early on in Kiryu's story,

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but it's a little bit more, I think,

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grippy and grabby than Kiwami 1.

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- Yeah, I started with
"Infinite Wealth" (chuckles)

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and I was surprised at
how approachable it was.

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And I just loved all of
these like quirky moments.

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Like I came across this guy

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who his waiter for his
restaurant didn't show up.

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- Oh yeah.
- And so-

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- [Jen] So you have to, like,

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figure out which dishes.
- So I ended up waiting tables

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and learning like various Hawaiian dishes.

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And I had to like respond
to different customers

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with different levels of enthusiasm

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and, you know, suggest
certain meals to them.

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And then there was another
one where I just find some boy

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who's running a lemonade stand

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because he wants to raise money

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to buy a tiara for his
friend who's going away.

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And so I'm just like wandering
around delivering lemonade,

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but it is sort of its mini game.

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Like what are some of
those like quirky moments

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that like really have stood out to you

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over the course of these games

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and you remember quite fondly?

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- There's literally so many,

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and I think this is a series that's great

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about like feeling
approachable to newcomers,

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'cause I also started at a
weird place, I started with six.

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But also kind of layering in things

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for people who've
experienced the other games

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that you can enjoy, but you don't.

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It doesn't ruin the experience
if you don't get it.

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I would say like there's a
character called the Obatarian.

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She's like an older gal.

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She's usually in Osaka.

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Like I think she first
comes up in "Yakuza 0,"

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but she's been in a lot of them since.

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She got like kind of
curly, short purple hair

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and she's always like super horned out

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for either Majima or Kiryu.

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You can recruit her for your
hostess club in "Yakuza 0"

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and she's secretly like the
best one out of all of them,

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like SS tier number one hostess.

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She's great and she wears this huge baggy

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like cheetah face sweatshirt
that I really, really want

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for my own personal collection.

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And I've tweeted about this
like literally numerous times.

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And Sega just make, make the
shirt, make the cheetah shirt,

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make the Obatarian shirt.

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There's a guy called Patriarch Gondawara.

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He's like a really like
brick (bleep) house,

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you know, criminal tough guy.

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Another member of a, I wanna
say it's the Tojo Clan,

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but it's one of the Yakuza families.

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Him and his buddies are really

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into kind of like diaper fetish.

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So they're always like in diapers

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and like at one point you
have to like bust heads.

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Like Kiryu will get in a fight

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with a bunch of big, beefy guys

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all wearing diapers and bonnets,

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and like they're kind of
rolling around on the floor

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being like gaga googoo.

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In "Infinite Wealth,"
this guy is a summon,

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like a final fantasy style summon.

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It's called Poundmates
in "Infinite Wealth,"

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but who you can bring him into
a fight at a pivotal moment

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to unleash some damage in baby form.

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- If you wanna play Yakuza in 2024,

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you can do so easily with Game Pass

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as a majority of the titles
have been made available

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on Xbox's subscription service.

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The series starts
chronologically with "Yakuza 0,

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and you can play the games on PS5, PS4,

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Xbox series, X and S Xbox one, and PC.

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That'll do it for us today.

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Thank you, Jen, for chatting with us

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about all things Yakuza.

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I'm Claire Jackson and this
has been "Total Recall."

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(upbeat music)