Save Point: A game deal roundup for the week of September 15

The series has been on a deeper discount, I'd hold off on buying 0 through 2 unless you're going to play them immediately. 3-7 usually sale for $5-6 so this is a good opportunity to complete your collection if you have the earlier games.

I would say Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza Kiwami 2 are still well worth the money. The series is a Mafia drama played as a beat em up RPG. They manage to balance being both very campy and dramatic with a lot of whacky side quests and activities. You're gonna get a lot of sweaty shirtless dudes punching each other. But side quests also range from just discussing economics and tax policies to catching panty thieves.

I started with 0 and felt it flowed nicely into 1 & 2 having recently played them. I put in probably 30-40hrs on each, completing the main quests, most the side quests, and some activities. Many of the activities are fleshed out, like complete implementations of mahjongg and other gambling games, cabaret club management, tower defense, SEGA arcade ROMs, mini pocket car racing, etc.

While in some ways I'd consider it progressive and thoughtful, in other ways... not so much. There is a strong machismo aspect, as is typical of this story genre, but they also poke fun at it and enjoy playing with homoeroticism. However, I still felt Kiwami (1) in particular fell flat on the writing and handling of women characters. They decided to remove a transphobic side quest when remastering 3, but I still felt their handling of trans/cross-dressing in earlier titles was a bit... tone deaf? But it also humanizes the houseless and sympathizes with their plight. My take away is that the devs aren't terribly diverse themselves, but are still good hearted and have just fumbled a bit handling issues they're less informed about. The protagonist is genuinely kind and never mean spirited or punching down (except when he literally punches fools on the ground).

Oh yeah, they're also only dubbed in Japanese. The voice acting is phenomenal so I've been pleased nonetheless, but it may understandably be a non-starter for some.

If you want to play when the games came out, Yakuza Kiwami is the technically first one of the series that came out, it's just a remake of the original PS2 game. With Yakuza 0 being played after 5. If you want to play in chronological order of the events in the games, then Yakuza 0 is the one you want to start with.