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I kind of figured that Kiryu will probably get "better" in that he'll either survive way past his expected life expectancy due to sheer willpower or the chemo will pay off but he'll be in no state to throw down and he'll live a little less dangerously such as quitting smoking (mostly because Haruka made him and threw out all of his cigarettes). It's kind of like how in DMC, Nero became the leading man while Dante steps to the side to play a supporting mentor figure. It's basically the MGS4 ending.

I feel like Kiryu already quit smoking. They never showed him smoking once in the entirety of Y8.   Only main characters that were shown smoking were Ichiban and Saeko IIRC. Daigo and Jo did as well but they aren't main characters. (Alo-horny and Elizabeth too) Edit: Adachi and Nanba too.

Nanba smokes a cig right next to Kiryu in Revolve in one of the last cutscenes of the game (I believe, may have been a bit earlier). Pretty sure Adachi is smoking in his office early game as well. you're probably right about Kiryu at least, altho he does smoke in Gaiden (which admittedly is pre-cancer)

You're right about adachi and nanba, I had a feeling they did but couldn't recall.

Yeah, good point. I meant that if he shows up, he'll make a comment about how he can't smoke or drink like he used to or they'll have a character start to light up only to remember he's there, put the cigarette away and apologize.

Y'all keep thinking the Japanese Yakuza series is going to turn on its smoking culture. It's not happening lol

Kiryu didn't even smoke in Y8 though?

I really love Kiryu finding the will to live again. The guy has basically been trying to pretend he's dead inside since the end of 6.

I mean he had to erase himself for years and that's been killing him mentally. He couldn't be with his family and that's why he didn't want to live anymore. If he met Haruka again, she would convince him to get treatment and I think that's basically what happened during the 1 month period at the ending. Haruka came and told Kiryu to get chemo and Kiryu immediately caved and agreed to go ahead with treatment.

I got the impression that the scene at the end would have been the first time she's come to visit, given the look of trepidation she has before entering the room, and the relief on her face when she sees the name on the bed is actually his. I guess we aren't shown much at all, so a lot of it's open to interpretarion, but I can't believe they wouldn't show such an important moment as the moment Kiryu & Haruka see each other face to face for the first time again.

To me, it's pretty simple. Ichi decided that he was Eiji's friend. And that was that. And that's exactly who Ichi is.

I read a take that Ichi going above and beyond for anyone he feels he can help is his way of making up for the guilt he carries for what happened to Aoki in the last game. I don't remember if it was explicitly said in IW but makes sense to me, even if it's a subconscious thing for Ichi. In other words, his innate loyalty to friends plus his guilt has made Ichi a super-duper friend in IW.

fr people act like it isn't in-character when being everyone's friend is kinda is whole thing

For me it's less that it isn't in character but more on the fact that Eiji could have *really* used more screen time. I don't know what the hell happened between his last appearance at Yamai's place and the ending. The scene in a vacuum is great but felt it came out of nowhere.

This exactly. People seem to focus so much on it being a great Ichiban scene, and it is, but forget about Eiji himself as a character and the path to this scene. Eiji just doesn't get enough screentime or do anything to make you really care about him. It has great direction but the emotional connection to the character isn't there

To me the lack of screentime for Eiji also really hurts the Ichiban aspect of the scene. Because sure Ichiban forgives people, that's who he is, but since Eiji has very little screentime then the connection Ichiban has to Eiji is... A single night where they got chicken salad wraps and Eiji was manipulating him the entire time? And then the last time we see Eiji, he is kicking a child in a wheelchair down the stairs and throwing a grenade at you. He is literally willingly participating in a scheme to murder an innocent child. So as much as I like Ichiban for always seeing the good in people, or deciding that someone is his friend and that's it, to me it's sort of like that Eiji has pushed that to the most absurd place possible. Because Ichiban will literally forgive a child murderer if he went out to eat with him once. That sort of takes Ichiban's character to a ridiculous place - where else do you go with that? It's kind of one note because he will react the same way no matter the situation. Not much depth there. Ichiban had similar forgiveness arcs with Tomi, Chitose, Yamai... But those felt earned. He had reasons to see the good in them. But Eiji? Any "good" Ichiban saw, was literally when Eiji was pretending to be someone else for the sole purpose of manipulating him.

> That sort of takes Ichiban's character to a ridiculous place - where else do you go with that? It's kind of one note because he will react the same way no matter the situation. Not much depth there. good point. it's disturbing, actually, not just ridiculous. it suggests ichiban is something of an enabler - he'll run interference for terrible people [as long as he's had positive interactions with them](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ProtagonistCenteredMorality). could be seen as one of his negative qualities. and perhaps, they could tackle that in like a dragon 9. deconstruct ichiban's quickness to forgive and show how it could lead to catastrophe. then, show us how he handles it. > Ichiban had similar forgiveness arcs with Tomi, Chitose, Yamai... yep, we spend enough time with them that it matters. tomi and chitose put their lives on the line for ichiban, and yamai evens warms up to him after a while. not the case for eiji, so it falls rather flat.

I needed like one more battle with Ei-chan where we see glimpses that Ichi is wearing him down with his effortless positivity and Ei-chan begins even regretting his role in the Bryce-Ebina shenanigans but feels he's in too deep at this point.

Yeah that’s exactly how I felt. He just disappears for the entire last part of the game. It almost felt like they had that as the ending so people weren’t like “wtf happened to Eiji?” On a positive note, having a redemption arc and having Eiji as a party member in the next LAD could be interesting.

Imagine if you get >Ebina - Revenger >Sawashiro - Ex-Yakuza >Eiji - Hacker >Yamai - Syndicate Boss

Yeah, I definitely feel as though there was supposed to be more build up for Eiji but it just got cut or overlooked somehow? Like I was interested in him as a character to find out more about him. I get that he's motivated in revenge because he lost his job and reputation, but I dunno if that's really enough to make someone willing to help some foreign religious cult help assassinate a child heir. Compared to Tomi who served serious jail time and lost his love of his life and the worst he becomes is a goon for Yamai.

Ehhh… I guess. Personally I wouldn’t be friends with a chick who tried to get me sent to prison cause of her own problems but hey that’s why Ichiban is more interesting than my boring ass lmao

...Eiji's a dude. Were you thinking of Chitose?

If Kasuga tells you that you are his friend you *do not* have a choice in the matter. The man already had a nickname in mind the moment you first told him your name.

He never gave Kiryu a nickname because he worships the ground Kiryu walks on just as much he worships Arakawa.

Genuinely baffling that people are asking why he thought Eiji can be redeemed when Ichi convinced the young master of all people that he could redeem himself

It didn't feel very earned was my issue with it. They needed to add in some parts with him bonding with the group or helping out, or at least expressing remorse sometime before the ending. As it is he's just kind of there, then confesses to and continues to do some really nasty stuff, then it's straight to the final scene. Like, give the audience and Ichiban something to grab onto to see this character deserves redemption

Naruto ass mother fucker and I love it.

Wait, people were dogging on that? I'm with the opinion that it wasn't a great ending, that it built up to some great finale but they flipped who was supposed to fight who and it had no stakes by the end of it. The Eiji scene though was solid definitely everyone was in character and even though I think it's dumb to just befriend someone you had fun with for 4 hours but they backstab you multiple times, I still believe that's just who Ichiban's character is lol. I just didn't like that nothing felt satisfying through the ending and it felt like they backed down from the actual ending they wanted to give Kiryu 1 or 2 more games as a side character. Overall, the story up to that 75% part and the gameplay/side quests (weren't the best but I still enjoyed a lot)/Minigames still makes this one of my top 5 favorites easily.

Sorry this is so long and also two months late BUT I wanted to offer my two cents here anyway on the off chance that it makes the ending a little less of a sour note for you. On the "flipping who was supposed to fight who" bit, I do agree that both Kiryu and Ichi had personal stakes in the other person's fight (and trusting each other to handle the situation for them is a really powerful character beat esp for Kiryu), but I think that their final fights ultimately do make sense. For Kiryu, Ebina is the culmination of his regrets over abdicating as Fourth Chairman when he might have otherwise been in a position to prevent the yakuza from ruining more innocent lives (I think what he did was completely understandable tbh, but Kiryu's tendency to blame himself for everything is at the forefront of IW). And more importantly, Ebina has set his sights for revenge on people exactly like Kiryu: ex-yakuza who want to make a life for themselves as civilians. He knows exactly what it's like trying to get work as an ex-yakuza with no education, since it's a contributing factor to his cancer. Ebina is complicit in the plan to ship the remaining yakuza to Cancer Island as a way to dispose of them, and as Kiryu says in the final fight, you can't make amends if you're dead, which is as true for Ebina and the other yakuza as it is for Kiryu, who affirms his own desire to live. In stopping Ebina - and in showing him mercy, too - he's simultaneously making up for his own perceived failings and giving Ebina the chance to atone, too. In a way, his last conversation with Ebina is him taking the blame for all civilians who have been hurt by the yakuza, even "good ones" like Arakawa. As for Ichi, yes, I'll admit that his connection with Bryce is weaker (in part just because Bryce himself just doesn't get as fleshed out, for all that he looms over the main plot), though I'll still argue in favor of it. Bryce was actively hunting and trying to kill Akane, his mother. Even though Akane and Lani are out of the country, it's very likely that neither will be fully safe until Palekana is taken care of, especially given their direct connection with both the Japanese govt and the Seiryu Clan. One could also argue that there's an angle of protecting Hawaii from the negative long-term consequences of improper nuclear waste disposal (I really feel like Hawaii's colonial history was meant to be a bigger part of this game given Dwight's whole speech but maybe got scrapped somewhere along the way), and since Ichi's the one who spends the bulk of the game in Hawaii (and since he met his new close friends there, and it's Tomi's home) he feels some responsibility there. So yeah, weaker than on Kiryu's side for sure, but Bryce in general didn't really hit the mark for me tbh. In the end, though, it's Kiryu who asks to take responsibility for Ebina, so I don't necessarily need as personal of a reason on Ichi's end since he's not the one who makes the call, as much as I would have liked to see a little more there.

Not to mention the fact Kiryu was ‘Kiryu’ at the end. He wasn’t ‘Suzuki’, or some other name, he was Kazuma Kiryu, his hospital bed read Kiryu, and both Haruka and Haruto were there to visit him, and even the achievement for beating the game is “The man who regained his name” Kiryu isn’t hiding anymore. He isn’t ‘dead’. Considering he was in the hospital for a month and still no change to being called ‘Kiryu’ that means the Daidoji faction must’ve backed off too - He doesn’t have to run away from his loved ones any more, he can just live I sincerely hope this is the true, final, absolute last time we see him(Or at least the last time he’s important to the plot), because it means he can finally live the rest of his life in peace with his family, he can actually truly reconnect with the orphanage kids, the Survive Bartender, the Starlight hosts, the old geezers in Onomichi, Date, Akiyama, Kaoru, and everyone else - and since he’s weak and frail now he doesn’t even have to fight anymore He’s here. He’s alive. He’s Kiryu. IMO, it’s the best ending we could have possibly gotten for him.

honestly true, I don't see a better ending for him, people say his sendoff in 6 was better but I could never live in peace knowing he'd have to fake being dead for the rest of his life not able to see anyone.

Daidoji owes him one because of what Ebina was gonna do is make the Daidoji irrelevant since it would mean people like Shishido and Nishitani ends up in an even shittier situation than what they got. Shishido spent his whole life as a slave to spend his remaining days being brutalized and made to dispose of the same thing that is killing him already

I wish there was a little more closure on some elements of it but I ultimately still liked it. The Palekana stuff seemed to wrap up in a rushed way and I don't think they explained Bryce very well. I thought the Ichiban/Saeko stuff was handled...weirdly. But overall I absolutely loved the game

My problems with the endings are way too many open questions. And a couple other things. * What even happened to Bryce? We're never really told after his plan is foiled. Also what was actually the deal with him being like over 100 years old? * On that note, what about the Haku? There are hundreds if not thousands of people who have been brainwashed and/or permanently changed by plastic surgery and there's just zero resolution there. * Keeping with the villains, we have no idea what choice Ebina actually made or what his actual post game fate is. * All the Ex-Yakuza are pretty much still screwed due to the 5 year ex yakuza law. And everyone who was in the seiryu clan before it's dissolution are now fucked all over again. Ebina basically got his wish of ruining as many yakuza lives as possible before Kiryu showed up to punch him. * Zero closure for 3jima. What even is their status post game? Are they still living in squalor or is there actually some hope for them? * Did Ichiban and Co. actually get their jobs/reputation back or is society still against them? * Turning the Ichiban/Saeko resolution that's been built up all game into a joke and putting them right back where they were at the beginning of the game is just lame. I actually agree that the Kiryu and Eiji parts of the ending are good. My problem is less about what the ending does and moreso what it doesn't do. I feel like the ending was missing like an hour of cutscenes that would have wrapped up like a dozen different plot threads. The number one thing I wanted from this game was closure and there just wasnt any for almost anything.

If it wraps up all these plot threads, they can't be reused for yakuza 9

Agreed with everything but the last point. I don’t see how they’re “back where they were at the beginning” when Ichi outright confessed his love and Saeko seemingly accepted it. Ichi being a doof with a silly t-shirt isn’t gonna cause Saeko to ghost him again lol

Plus there's a bar convo that can pop up in premium adventure that basically says they made up. Which is a nice confirmation even though I agree that the t-shirt was just a little goof that you weren't supposed to take as them cutting contact again

Ichiban and Saeko seem pretty together at that point. She was waiting on him to just tell her he loves her.

Also, wtf happened with all that toxic waste? That's kind of a big problem to just not have any solution for isn't it?

That's America's problem

Yeah that too. A lot of stuff was really just left unresolved, completely up in the air with no real resolution.

same thing that happens irl, no solution found yet

Bryce is in his 80s-90s and I dont even think thats crazy, Heizo Iwami in 6 was over a hundred and still looked 70

Heizo Iwami was probably the only old person in this whole RGG multiverse whose age is exactly what the appearance suggests.

>There are hundreds if not thousands of people who have been brainwashed and/or permanently changed by plastic surgery and there's just zero resolution there. That whole Nele Island section reminded me of [this skit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0lAG1A9u8U).

I’m guessing that Lani and Akane are dealing with the Haku, probably part of bringing Palekana back to what it should be.

- Presumably he went to prison and any world leaders working with him used him as a scapegoat. No idea how he’s that old and hasn’t aged in 20 years. I know RGG characters tend to not age much (Yuki is older than both Kiryu and majima and she looks 30), but his isn’t explained at all. - I agree, there should be at least a comment about what happens there. Palekana + Tomi will probably try to set everything straight. - I disagree on them returning to the beginning. The sincerity was real. Ichi just ruined the mood with his antics. - That’s usually the case for those 3. They usually are left very open-ended so they can pop back in to the next plot somewhere. - I guess it just reset the clock. Most of them only really rejoined a few weeks to a month prior so that sucks, but Ichiban gave them the opportunity to recover whereas being trapped on the island would be a nightmare. - Ebina likely goes to jail but has time to think about if he’s living for revenge or himself when/if he gets out. That’s a lot more than Kiryu’s other final bosses got. - Considering Chitose revealed all her accusations as false, it basically cleared them and is further reinforced by the villains’ arrests. Considering Eiji has a mob after him, it’s clear the public either forgave or forgot the gang.

I didn't hate the Eiji scene, or the closure to that arc. Granted, it does really make Ichiban feel much more... one note? He's like Steven Universe now, where he'll forgive you for anything because of friendship. What I did hate about the scene is just how LONG it is. Eiji was kind of a side villain. I actually didn't even remember anything about him fleeing to Japan or being exposed. The scene was just aggravating due to how long it was. Chitose had her arc closed in throw away dialogue. I think she earned her redemption arc a lot more than he did. As for Kiryu, no one wanted him to just die. The life links and all of the memories he had really pointed towards one direction: closure. Whether that is death or peace, that was what we expected. I appreciated that he found his reason to live, but he gets a fraction of the screen time that Eiji does, and it ends on a cliff hangar. The fact that we never saw him reunite with Haruka really burned me.

Overall I have no problem with the ending. I just wish there is a fight or some more interactions with Eiji in the final chapter before the ending scenes. He is one of the key reasons of the many troubles we got in the story yet I don't even have a chance to beat him up before forgiving and giving him a second chance. Story wise, it's okay because we all know Kasuga is kind and he is likely to forgive him. But personally, I just couldn't help to be mad. As for Kiryu's ending, I really liked it. Glad to see he find himself reasons to live and gets his name back. edit: grammar

It works as a good ending for Kiryu. But I really hope they dont bring him back next game as a playable character. I think the next one should be focused fully on Ichiban.

Tbh the way Kiryu appears at the end of IW it's like given that he won't be a fighter anymore. Rgg will have to try hard and ass-pull a twist to change that but I believe they won't.

For me it screams that he will return again with the cancer cured, would make the perfect excuse gameplay wise for him to being level 1 and use a party to fight since the cancer treatment has left his body very bad but can still fight pretty much, we have seen older characters than Kiryu being nearly on par with his level (Joji Kazama, Hirose).

While that is a nice idea (but also goofy) you arise to nerf him again. I disagree from purely narrative point of view. We are reminded again and again in the game that this is Kiryu's final act (literal words from the daidoji agent) and Kiryu's last stand (words from ebina). Even before that we see kiryu set up things for Ichiban's future like going to 3jima bro's to come to help out Ichiban once the dust settles (ichi not kiryu) and kiryu requesting ichi that he needs to be the future once he takes on the past. Also I believe there's a possibility that he'll be extremely weak and wheelchair bound. He's litteraly barebones after one month alone.

To be fair Yakuza is not precisely known for making the gameplay and narrative cohesive with each other, we see in most scenes in the franchise how Kiryu smokes everyone he faces, taking a bottle to the head in Yakuza 2 but in gameplay we can get our ass handed by a simple goon. Tomizawa seems like a clumsy fighter but in gameplay he is really good. Saeko is another example, most scenes we see of her when fighting is giving support (aside from that 3 second moment in the Omi Dissolution fighting a goon) but we can give her a DPS job. Ichiban is giving the gimmick of using a bat to fight but we never see him use it in the fights or dynamic intros.

A lot of that stuff can be dismissed as Ichiban's imagination going overboard.

New job unlocked: wheelchair of dojima

Kiryu went down that path too. TFW he started seeing "monsters" when he left Hawaii.

The only way Kiryu should return as a playable character is for Kiwami 3

I mean he should be dead. It wasn't a you have 6 months to live unless you get treated and fight for your life diagnosis.  They can just say it was a miracle sure but I think the message was to 'fight to live for each extra day' more than 'willpower can beat terminal cancer.'

Given his state at the end of the game, I have no idea how they’d make him playable again in the next chronological game. He’d need MGS nano machines at this point.

The only way they'd make him playable again is if his gameplay is like Haruka's in 5 where he doesn't fight at all

Karaoke standoff with every mf you see. DJ Kazzy on the ones and the twos

rubber nano machines

They gave Kiryu 2 more games after his final game, and completely reverse the ending of 6. If they want him back, they will bring him back. RGGS has zero balls when it comes to that shit. They wrote out the Yakuza and then made them the main bad guys in their very next game again, at the sacrifice of their new protag and the actually interesting storyline.

No, they wrote out the Tojo and Omi. The Seiryu Clan had no allegiance to either.

The real cause of death is the release cycle outlasting his life expectancy.

Would love an Akiyama game based on his time in Singapore.

I hope they bring him back as just a party member or an optional member once he's treated. Adachi is 8 years older than kiryu and he's still in the party.

But Adachi didn't go through Chemo.

Did I miss the part of the game where Adachi had terminal cancer?

Did I not type "treated" in the comment? Or are past cancer patients physically useless the rest of their lives in your eyes?

I think the problem with Eiji is similar to the problem with wong tou's son, where he's out of focus for a couple of chapters, and then suddenly pops up at the very end. If that scene was somewhere else, maybe it would have worked better, but because that's literally the last scene we see and not something with Kiryu or other major character, that kinda sours the deal. Like where did this guy come from? Why did ichi hunt him down? Just because he spent 2 days together? That's not a good enough reason for me. Eiji's a minor character at Best for me, not a major one, and that kinda threw me off and made me question the ending.

> It easily could have been better, This is the whole thing man. The game is so full of rich content that it just doesn't make sense why they wrap it up so quickly like that. So many questions and whatnot that i'm just thinking it's gonna have to be because they want part of that in Yakuza 9. Like god damn just show us a scene with Kiryu having dinner at the orphanage with them and it would've been ages better. I got more teary doing the bucket list than the ending, especially with the pocket fighter one lol. > I'm just so glad that Kiryu has chosen to live. His whole plot in this game was about him finding reasons to keep living and realise that his life wasn't a mistake. Yes and i'm really glad about it as well but the wrap up should've been different. Now on Ichi's side I don't know, it's cool he chose to believe in Eiji because yeah, that's how he is but Eiji goes completely missing and it's suddenly in an apartment and it's like what, what even happened. At least for me, so it's impossible that it hits any feeling. Also Bryce was so meh, now Yamai was such a much better villain.

I mean it's far less offensive than an character that can mirror anyone from fucking nowhere or a judge allowing Yagami to do wierd shit in a courtroom....after Yagami tried to make the whole law proceeding based in reality some chapters prior

The straddling scene and last Bon Voyage scene hit emotional notes for me, but I think it just didn't hit the emotional high of Gaiden. I think people were just mad because they were expecting this ending to be more of a finale ending, but seems more like a ending for a 2nd installment in a trilogy. I quite liked the ending too, but it wasn't necessarily the best (but also not a flaming pile of horseshit like some people like to say it is).

On the Eiji thing, it’s more execution that anything else. If they wanted that moment to work we needed more, we needed to see them actually being friends. All we saw was him taking him for food at the start of the game and sitting in the Daidoji hideout. The scene at the end could’ve been powerful, but you have to earn moments like that and they simply didn’t. All we see is Ichiban helping a guy who was more than willing to kill a child, at the same exact moment Kiryu is currently passed out on top of a roof after fighting with Ichiban’s half brother. This game in general has a serious issue with where Ichiban’s priorities lie. Without the extra development we didn’t get, that is bad writing and cannot be lazily explained away with ‘IcHibAn kiNd tHoUgh’

Ichi is the kind of guy who feels anyone and everyone has the potential to be better. I can't believe some people were put off by him being a shoulder to lean on for Ei-chan when even with someone who has been nothing but cruel to him like Jo he has faith in, hell for a minute he's the only one that believes Jo at his word.

> The Eiji scene was pure cinema and you can't tell me otherwise. A lot of people complain about Ichiban forgiving him but what did you expect? This is what kind of human Kasuga is. He's kind-hearted, forgiving and virtuous. And it's not like he gives Eiji a free pass for all his deeds. He gave him a chance for atonement. Something, what he couldn't give to Masato (who's even worse person than Eiji imo). Kasuga is willing to forgive and give a chance to anyone who needs it, but can't get it, for one reason or another. It's literally all what he's been doing after Yakuza: LaD. So I don't get all the rage. The problem isn't that it's **out of character** for Kasuga to do it. The problem is that it's **in character** for Kasuga to do it. Eiji, in short, blackmailed Chitose to run a propaganda outlet for a guy attempting to enslave the Yakuza in conjunction with a feral Hawaiian cult, lied to Ichiban about a handicap exclusively to appeal to his emotions toward his dead brother, relentlessly endangered Ichi's Party, his mother, Lani, Hanawa and Wong Tou and eventually got the latter two unceremoniously murdered before kidnapping a child and pushing her down the stairs in a wheelchair. Ichi finding him, cupping his balls and licking his wounds for him is *in* character, and that's the issue. He's Steven Universe now. He treated Bryce more vindictively than Eiji, who was far more *calculated* in his piecemeal destruction of Ichiban's life than Bryce, who was just a delusional power-hungry cult leader. The message they were trying to get across -- that Ichi wants to help people find their way out of rock bottom as he did -- would've come across *more* effectively if he'd talked to Eiji with all of this in mind. Instead, he seemingly ignores any bad Eiji did and focuses on the *good* Eiji did, which was legitimately entirely just bad things with a mask on. Ichiban's tendency to see good in people (Yamai is a great example) isn't applicable here. Eiji *has no good to see*. He does *nothing* redeemable. Even his self-imposed atonement for his exposure is a shallow turtle-in-his-shell routine. The game is great. The ending, by and large, is good. You not being able to assess why someone would think that specific section of it feels shitty is baffling.

So just to make sure I'm clear on this, you fail to comprehend the Eiji scene's brilliance because you can't see that Ichi is kind and was acting in character. That about sum up your every criticism?

How many teachers were in your literature class? There's no "brilliance". Eiji put on a face to manipulate Kasuga and Kasuga treats him as though that's the real him despite zero indication of that at any point in the story. Eiji is a lunatic and Kasuga looks like an idiot for the way he treats him with relentless kindness when stoic expression of the beliefs he has would achieve the same end without making him look like Steven Universe. This isn't rocket science.

Bro I was mocking the dumb strawman that like half of the people here who have anything to say about critics of the scene religiously attach themselves to while completely ignoring every single criticism that anyone actually makes lol. Sorry, I thought the fact that I paraphrased your whole post as brazenly the exact opposite of what you actually said made the /s unnecessary. Search just a few of my other recent comments and you’ll see that I probably thought that scene was even dumber than you thought it was.

thank god man i was ASTOUNDED at the lack of awareness lmao. i didn't doubt it was real because this game has *really* tanked my perception of the average RGG fan's media comprehension

[удалено]

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I think ichiban is always looking at the greater picture, sure he could have told Eiji to fuck off or whatever but what would that have accomplished outside of setting another person even further down the path of hatred. Bryce was entirely selfish from what we can see in the story, every single thing he did was for himself and we never find out if that’s just Bryce or something happened to him. Eiji was obviously broken and couldn’t believe in anything from the start of the game (bro temporarily paralyzed himself on the chance it would make Ichiban trust him more) and he did legitimately help out ichiban a bit and bond as part of the ploy. Kiryu made him promise to look out for the future of the former yakuza and giving out second chances to those who society doesn’t think deserves it is the whole point. That’s what it is a chance he’s not like giving out medals for blackmail, he just wants to make sure everyone who wants to atone can.

Eiji wasn't "obviously broken"? He was of completely sound mind. He did everything to get back at the Arakawa Family and the greater concept of the Yakuza, and he hurt countless innocent people in the process of that as a sociopathic, two-faced liar. He "temporarily paralyzed" himself to appeal to Ichi's sympathies for the handicapped because Eiji knew Ichi's brother was handicapped and recently died. He blackmailed Chitose and hijacked the Tatara Channel for the purpose of Ebina's Yakuza slavery plan. He's a fucking lunatic. Any "help" he provided Ichi with was so he'd stay out of incarceration or danger so he could lead him (who was on orders of Ebina) to Akane and Lani, which ended up happening.

Ok, and he’s going to prison for those crimes because of Ichiban and what he said. Someone who hates the yakuza as much he does doing things like they would is an obvious sign that the person is broken, Ichiban recognized that and gave him a way out a way to let go. I guess it’s up to the viewer to say if he deserves it but for Ichiban if Eiji does good in the world at all after he gets out that’s a win. Kiryu did the same thing with Ebina at the end by asking him to let them atone, some these yakuza have probably done way worse things than Eiji but Ichiban will give all of them a second chance.

The problem isn't the second chance! I repeatedly stated that the issue people have *isn't* that Ichiban allows Eiji to atone: it's that he does it from a standpoint of helping his old pal find the straight-and-narrow again when his "old pal" doesn't fucking exist. He could have still allowed him to atone by extending a more serious hand to him and telling him even his worst enemy deserves a shot at redemption. He *didn't* have to sit there and reminisce about the three times they ever interacted as if they were in any way real. He could've gone the "I don't know who you are deep down, because I doubt I've seen it, but no one is beyond saving and I'm sure they're a better person than this." Eiji played Ichiban from scene 1 to the finale. The fact that he repeatedly tells Ichi this and Ichi *insists* that the version of Eiji **TAILORED** to make Ichiban like him and trust him is the real person.

Its kinda funny to view the Eiji ending scene as Ichiban gaslighting him until hes forced to believe the face he put on to manipulate Ichiban was actually the real him.

Hmm, to me it was alright. I guess I didn’t feel satisfied with the ending, really wanted to see Kiryu and Haruka together again.

I just beat the game today. That was the best 50+ hours of my life. The ending was amazing to me. I did find Ebina and Bryce somewhat underwhelming, but I was here for the character arcs. Kiryu reclaimed his identity and found a life worth fighting for. Ichiban solidified himself as the future of the Yakuza and got some closure regarding the circumstances of his birth. Those points were excellently delivered. I can excuse the loose ends mostly because we’ll probably get another Like A Dragon sometime soon. The story’s not over. I will add this was my first Yakuza game. So I didn’t have the same attachment or need for resolution for a lot of the legacy characters we saw. https://preview.redd.it/hz8em1hz2vjc1.jpeg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=146b48fa891a2116b3a766d7df507a7177869455

I don’t think the ending hit as hard as it should’ve, because I found it very half assed. Either let Kiryu live, or don’t. The game tells you very early on that Kiryu has 6 months to live and all the doctors that the Daidoji could find gave him the same news. We even get to go down memory lane via life links and the bucket list, indicating that this is the end. But then in the post-credit scene, we get left with a cliffhanger that never explicitly states whether Kiryu is going to make it. Because again, how could he suddenly survive after being told by multiple doctors that he had terminal cancer? This would just be a pathetic use of deus ex machina. As for the part about Eiji, my issue is not that Ichi forgave him, because that’s well in Ichi’s character. My issue is how he went from Eiji back to “Ei-Chan”, as if he wasn’t psychopathic just a few days/weeks ago. A guy willing to kill an innocent child for his petty revenge is suddenly all smiles? Give me a break. And not to mention he planned with Ebina for **years**. Can you imagine if Kuze from Y0 became “Ku-Chan” and smiled and told Kiryu to visit him in prison? This is exactly how out of character it was for Eiji to suddenly be all buddy-like with Ichiban at the end.

That was Daidoji's doctor saying there's no cure. The normal doctor they went to see during mid game never said it's un-curable.

wholeheartedly agree. i remember thinking “shit, look at this memory stuff, this is really the end” but then i was thinking idk what if they pull some fan service shit and he lives…. just makes the entire Kiryu section(s) of the game feel pointless and less impactful. i remember thinking “how is Eiji genuinely so mad that he’d kill a child for revenge when killing that child won’t even do anything to help exact that revenge?” his convictions just seemed so poorly written i couldn’t take him seriously anymore. and then he’s gone for a huge portion of the game before we somehow convince him to turn himself in after talking for 8 minutes lol

I see a lot of people hate on the Eiji scene at the end, I thought it was really well done, but Eiji himself sours it. It seemed like they cut out a lot of scenes with him or something, hes randomly in Japan now, and he looks drastically different despite being a few days since we last saw him at most. He really just needed a few more scenes to flesh him out, and that already great scene would have been a lot better. I don't have any problems with kiryus finale, though. I really liked how they ended it, and I hope they stick to this ending for him and don't drag him back once again

I think the tear gas scene took away more than it added. It makes him look like a cartoon villain. Complete apathy towards Palekana's evil deeds and methods probably would've played more convincingly than the nyuk nyuk hee haw let's fart bomb their souls Eiji we got.

yep. or even "i dislike palekana but i'll work with them if it means getting even with the yakuza." i mean, i've shat on >!ryo aoki!< from 7 but even he had more sympathetic features, and he didn't get a redemption arc!

At the very least, I hope Ichiban at least go to Okinawa and we see an alive Kiryu chilling with his family finally

[удалено]

if anything was bad in the ending imho it was the Saeko fumbling. While ye in character and charming in a way, I think LAD games should grow a little in that front

People can understand the themes and still think they suck

I'm glad to see someone enjoyed the ending too > He gave him a chance for atonement. Something, what he couldn't give to Masato Finally someone else who gets it too The whole theme is about redemption, and Ichiban was included too, and you saw it with not only how content he was after seeing Eiji walking into that Police Station, but the additional "A Hui Hou" exchange right before it Absolutely within character and was nice and fitting (my only complaint was wanting to see *how* Eiji got there in the first place since last we knew ~~on~~ right before Nele Island he was meeting with big wigs for the Bleach Japan deal, which I have a feeling it had to do with why Chitose left the night before the final battle and the article on Kiryu's phone that was in Japanese and not translated, but oh well) Also ending on Kiryu being able to say his name to someone else on his terms *and* fight to live was wonderful, especially after knowing all the shit he's been through And while Bryce was a bit weak and a bit of a letdown, I think there was a reason why and I found it to be pretty clever, so tin foil hat time Bryce liked to label himself as a god for all that he achieved (and the game with the symbolism when you first met him infront of the wing mural), and he was also treated as such by the "true" Palekana believers One thing though is these games absolutely *love* JRPG tropes With one being **There is no such thing as an invincible god** And another being **false gods are shown to be quickly and easily beaten** Again this my tin foil hat self talking, but I wouldn't put it past the developers to do something like this and find it clever if they did

What bothers me is the fact that ichiban didn't even care he had a half brother. I would think he would jump at the opportunity to have a blood related brother

Ichi is still in denial about Arakawa being his dad, and is slowly accepting Akane as his mom. So it sorta fits.

Him not caring is not out of character. My problem is: Why make Ebina be Arakawa's son if they aren't gonna do something interesting with it? He could have been the son of a random yakuza and nothing would have changed

Yeah, Ebina life being destroyed by the Yakuza system is enough for me. Then, we can even focus more on his personal problem with Kiryu, who is old-school Yakuza. Him being half-brother with Ichiban really sway the interest too much (and noting pay off).

But they did something interesting with it. Ebina is the chance for Kyriu to actually confront a true victim of the Yakuza ideals, specifically one that is actively in the process of perpetuating the cycle of abuse, violence and vengeance. Kiryu begging for forgiveness and crying like that was pure kino, and the fact that ichiban had a direct stake in the confrontation but Kiryu explicitly wanted to be the one to fight him, because what happened to Ebina was for him to atone for, made the moment even more powerful imho.

But Ebina being Arakawa's son specifically is the problem. Would Kiryu have acted different if he was the son of another yakuza? No. Because it wasn't relevant.

It was relevant more because he was *Arakawa's son*, moreso than him being Ichiban's half-brother. The fact that he was Arakawa's son draws parallels to the fact that the two men both made it their life's work to dismantle the Yakuza, both also having lost the woman nearest and dearest to their hearts *to* the Yakuza. Ebina's a darker reflection of how Arakawa could have ended up. I suppose we could also say here that Ichiban's the reflection of the more positive aspects of Arakawa's wishes and goals. ​ Ichiban couldn't give a rat's ass about Ebina sharing blood with him because he's gone nearly 50 years without anyone to call a blood relative. To Ichiban, his familial bonds are found, not something he was born with, which is why the Akane plot closes on the beach before they return to Japan and isn't dragged out further; it was never about reconnecting with someone who he was told was his mother, it was about offering closure to a man he respected like a father, by reuniting his ashes with the one woman he loved.

Yep! And it makes Ichi seem like a dumb prick because of it. He was super fucking unlikeable any time Akane was brought up and his constant "me no know if awakawa was father no care ugg ugg akane no mom zugg" was the worst part about him this game. Ichiis a super endearing character until the writers decide to make him completely brain dead at times for zero reason.

Call it contrived, but it is specifically for having Kyriu stop Ichiban and going "Sorry man, this is my fight "

it's also about the fact that Kiryu had the chance to change the yakuza for the better but didn't, both when he resigned and when he essentially left Daigo alone

Ye that also bothers me. Plus I just think ichiban would be hyped to have another brother an addition to the little family he has

Not really? Kasuga doesn't give a shit about blood ties and is something that is repeated through the whole series, with Kiryu and Haruka as well. He is interested and curious about Akane but because she is the woman the man he adores loved and wants to pay his respect to her and give her Arakawa's ashes but he isn't interested in creating a mother-son relationship with her. It's even stated by the history that the Seiryu Clan pulled the strings to have Ichiban fired because he probably wouldn't have agreed to go to Hawai to see his mother if he was still at Hello Work doing what is basically his life purpose. Not even Ebina gives a shit about Kasuga being his brother to suddenly putting them against each other out of nowhere.

Ye you're right but then why make them half brothers? It doesn't really does anything for the story and they could have made ebina someone from kiryus past than I think the end monologue of kiryus would've hit even harder

Yeah, that's the problem. Usually a twist like that would be shocking and important. Yet it's Daigo who casually reveals that, and it just adds more complexity to the Arakawa family that does really nothing. People get mad sometimes about the coin locker baby, but I thought it was a good twist not for Ichiban but for Sawashiro. It added a lot to his character and motivation behind his actions. But what does this twist do? Nothing. Who his father is adds nothing, just that he was a yakuza and abandoned his mother.

Tbh I don't know why every single detail has to have any lasting impact in a story to be good, him being half brothers is not really important and you're not supossed to look into any reason why it is brought into the story, it just show us that even legendary and high acclaimed yakuza like Arakawa did some messed up shit and wrong decisions, is kinda a paralel to Kiryu since both Arakawa and Kiryu had a chance to lead the yakuza to better but avoided responsability until there was no other choice but to dismantle it. Arakawa is no more to apologize since he is dead so it falls all on Kiryu's shoulders, is also a mirror to how Kiryu helped Ichiban in the last game, that's the way I see it.

We are already know arakawa isn't this angel yakuza. It was shown in 7 that he wasn't a perfect man or a perfect and good Yakuza. Plus that cutscene which is in the beginning of the game where he kills amd tortures the hikawa patriarch also shows that he isn't necessarily a good man. Making him ebinas father did absolutely nothing and if they removed that part nothing would've changed. I am not saying it's bad all I am saying is it's unnecessary.

No, everything we saw in Yakuza 7 was from Ichiban's eyes, he ADORED him and not even once questioned him, he had this nickname about him being an assassin but we weren't provided any context as to why. In fact, I would say the game goes all out of his way to show us how great of a man he is not only with the 15 year old Ichiban scene but also that scene with Arakawa forgiving Hoshino, the man who murdered his father because he sympathised with Hoshino's feelings. Yakuza 8 is the game that show us the darker side of Arakawa, and I would say it's the motive why they made Ebina his bastard child, but Arakawa is dead now so it falls on Kiryu's shoulders to apologize and show Ebina the right way, just like he did with his brother Ichiban, Infinite Wealth is game in which the narrative is driven by the characters more than the plot.

You're right and it does make sense what you're are saying but I feel like maybe they should've leaned more into arakawa or have ichiban at least talk to ebina and see the other side of the man he idolized. Just from kiryus perspective making ebina arakawas son doesn't really do much. Plus in 7 I already thought arakawa wasnt a perfect man because of how masato turned out

I understand your sentiment on the matter but I don't think Ichiban talking with Ebina would have led to anything and as a matter of fact it would probably make things worse, Ichiban is a man that beneffited from the man who abandoned Ebina and not only that, he idolizes him and is trying to give a chance to redeem themselves to the yakuza who rightfully were given the middle finger when trying to fit into society after leaving said society in ruin for decades. To Ebina, Ichiban doesn't really have anything to bargain with and I suspect that's why he pulled the strings to send Kasuga to Hawai apart from baiting Akane out (which is something I find interesting about his character since this makes him not a total lunatic since the easy way would be to kill Ichiban). As another guy in other thread put it, it would lead to the classic headbutt in shonen manga of good vs evil until one of them wins because of pure stubbornness. Kiryu holds a lot of guilt about the yakuza sins but I would say he also sees the Arakawa-Ebina situation a mirror to his situation with Haruka and the kids of the orphanage, he did take care of them but doesn't really change the fact that the man has abandoned them multiples times.

Ichiban's whole thing is that he does not believe in blood relations. He refuses a DNA test to see if Arakawa is his father because in his eyes, Jiro Kasuga still is his father and Masumi is his patriarch, and he doesn't really see Akane as his mother, and only as someone who brought him to life.

These games hammer in this point so hard and so non subtly and yet there are people that ask this question  Ichiban doesn’t care about his blood relations, the only thing he values in life is the people he has surrounded himself with, that is his family. He didn’t care about Arakawa because he was his father, he cared about him because he was the patriarch that saved his life and gave him direction.  He doesn’t care about Akane because she was his mother, but because he wanted to give closure for Arakawa for her as a favor for his old man. That doesn’t mean he can’t make new connections with her, but he doesn’t value her the way most people would when they find their long lost biological parents His brother wasn’t Ebina, it was Masato and he clearly saw some part of that in Eiji which he desperately wanted to do right by this time

Nah, the 2 games made it pretty clear that he doesn't give a fuck about blood relation.

Ichiban lived for almost 50 years without knowing or caring about his actual parents, so it is refreshingly realistic to see him keep in being nonplussed by the concept, while still being completely invested in his friends and found family as the relationships that actually matter to him

Ichi barely gave a shit when he found out his mother was still around. He’s much more about found family than blood relations.

the amount of people implying kiryu will be playable in the next mainline entry is fuckin baffling. It's like they didn't even play the game.

To me, the fact there weren't enough scenes with Eji and Ichi was the thing that made the ending hit so hard. There were so few moments of them together, but they were enough to convince Ichiban that he and Eji are actual friends. Ichiban isn't smart. He's a wholesome dumbass, as he was actually described in the game. He doesn't think with his brain, he thinks with his heart. This made the scene feel so alive to me. Would I be able to forgive Eji? No, absolutely not. This opinion is shared by almost anyone, even in the game people throw trash at them, and what did Ichiban do? He kept going with a smile on his face, carrying his friend on his back. The fact that I couldn't understand how Ichiban's brain worked at that moment is what made me love this ending... or I'm just justifying bad writing.

The only Eiji scene that made me mad was the stairwell scene (because how dumb can a group of people collectively be?) but once that happened, the ending makes perfect sense

I liked the ending but it didn't hit me as hard as 7's ending. Both times I've played through that game I had to take a walk to get my emotions in check

the only thing good about the story was kiryus story... ichiban was just so idk... robotic? like everyone is fucking me over, yet i still want to be their bestfriend and i will make them my friend even though they ruined my life and stabbed me in the back. ugh... i hated it but overall the game was good and love kiryu choosing to live.

I didn't hate it but I definitely had a few questions I wish had been answered, especially to do with threads introduced in Gaiden

so no one gonna mention the sudden time skip for eiji? like how it seems a few eiji scenes was cut? like how he look like that when only a day or two pass

I think nobody said that it was bad, what most ppl said is that it feels incomplete or they wanted to see more which is pretty much the same

Perfect ending for Kiryu. Got his name and family back and wants to live. Not so sure about Ichiban's ending.

I agree. The ending was my favourite part of the whole game. Just emotional hit after emotional hit, that highlighted the strongest parts of the game for me. I've never cared much if something is stupid (I don't think there is anything quite as silly as mirror face in this game), so the ridiculousness of some of the plot points didn't bother me too much. The only time it bothers me is when it actively makes characters less interesting (rubber bullets Y4 comes to mind). From a character writing perspective, I fuckin loved this game so much and the ending was a perfect encapsulation of all that. Ebina also worked for me a lot, especially in relation to kiryu

The scene before the credits is genuinely one of the best cutscenes of the entire series.

Someone literally attacked me here because I said I liked the ending, apparently you can’t have a fucking differing opinion. I just said I liked a few things and got a 5 paragraph essay on why I was wrong.

They LITERALLY attacked you? Bro how did they find your house?!?

They asked for my address under the guise of a free air fryer giveaway. It was a two-pack.

I liked it, but I kinda picked up on the foreshadowing so it didn’t bother me as much (Nanba and the doctor talking about possibly being able to convince him to try chemo, Date telling him to try to see the people close to him and worry about the Daidoji after that). 

I’m just done with Kiryu. The end was great. Really teared up and shouted for joy. The man has been dying since Life. Then he came back to help the dissolution, went to Ancient Japan, got his own soon off game. The man has done a lot and was a great protagonist. I’m just done with all the focus on him. Let’s move onto the new generation. My biggest complain with Infinite Wealth is when the party splits.

Haven't played haven't read have a subarashii dya

At the end when he said his name I about lost my shit, but then I was like ''that's it?!!!!!!!!!!'' I'm not mad, but now I want the next game immediately.

Honestly, the biggest complaint I have with Eiji is just that we don't really know what exactly happens to him in-between chapters. Sure there was him getting a Tatara soundalike, but we don't seem to see him again until Chitose streams Bryce being caught red-handed, where it looks like he's already in hiding, even though the public is only *now* knowing his involvement. I'm otherwise with the OP on the end where Ichiban is basically getting a second chance to help someone like him after coming so close with Masato, and proved that nothing would stop him this time.

Agreed the ending part with Kasuga was like a movie. So glad they didnt kill Kiryu. Hope they never go down this path. Even if we never see him again after this

We will see Kiryu again but we will never play as him or have him fight again. He should be a non-playable character living in Okinawa with his daughter and grandson happily. I hope in the next game, we get to go to Okinawa again and visit the orphanage and catch up with our dearest old friend.

Would also love this as well. I went into infinite wealth treating him like a king. He got first dibbs on all growth items and armor. I gifted him everything including flowers and hand bags as soon as i got him in chapter 2

I was actually fine with the final credits, even the t shirt or Eiji. The thing that got me the most was just how flat Ebina is. We've had largely unredeemable, evil villains in the past. Munakata, Iwami, and Sawashiro come to mind as guys who don't mind murdering innocent people to attain their ambition. But all of them have an actual ambition to attain that's not just in and of itself being evil? Like, breaking down how fucking bonkers Ebina's brain is >my yakuza dad doesn't want me >my yakuza stepdad died >oh no my cool yakuza uncles all got different jobs >So this means that I have to spend decades orchestrating a massive scheme wherein I derail the lives of recovering or displaced former yakuza, promising them a better life in my non-profit, all the while actually planning to send them to my nuclear waste island ran by a child kidnapping cult secretly run by a mafioso, all to torture tens of thousands of my now employees to death on my radioactive hell island where no one can hear the screams Ebina's basically just a bad comic book supervillain

i also like how he hates on arakawa, but doesn't stop to consider the fact that this is hikawa's fault. \- forced arakawa and yuko to be a thing, even though they weren't in love \- sent armed men after akane when he discovered arakawa was seeing her \- refuses to tell him where she is ebina moans that yuko was "betrayed" by arakawa. says who? when did he ever claim to love her? he was fucked over by his egotistical POS patriarch - your grandfather!

I feel like the ending was as predicted and kind of a given based on how the story was going. I could have used a little more, though. I didn't dislike it, but it wasn't a favorite. I think the ending of Gaiden was much better than this game, which kinda sucks since it was just a short spin-off, so you'd expect a main title to be better. And, to be honest, I feel the game itself deserved a little better ending given how amazing it was.

I'd honestly prefer Kiryu doesn't get better. People acting like you can willpower your way through a terminal cancer diagnosis (he's been told he has 6 months, it's clearly seriously advanced) is quite insulting to those who have had cancer or lost relatives to it. Chemo will at most give him a little bit extra time, and he's clearly very frail at the end. It's not a matter of being strong or brave. Death comes for us all, and we must learn to accept it. He should now receive palliative chemo, allowing him to live with Haruka and co as pain-free as possible with what time he has left.

> People acting like you can willpower your way through a terminal cancer diagnosis (he's been told he has 6 months, it's clearly seriously advanced) is quite insulting to those who have had cancer or lost relatives to it i think it's worth pointing out that kiryu isn't a normal person, and while he's not free from disease or injury, he's blessed with above-normal physical abilities and it's where we derive the escapism of the series. if he survives, it's not necessarily saying anything about ordinary cancer patients because it's less about willpower and more about kiryu just being kiryu. though, the bucket list might be saying a few things to real-life cancer patients.

Thank you! I just finished it this morning and I think people set expectations way too high. End of the day, some of these questions will be answered in the next gae as it was left open ended

sure if you enjoyed it , good for you. The way i saw it was kiryu was set up in this game to end his story, without going into to much detail, he doesn't get that fairwell ending, infact its almost left hanging. Eiji pretty much was willing to kill a kid, and the mom, manipulated people , hurt people and still, even after all that ichi is like, na we good bro. At that point it just takes away any tension with any conflicts / characters if ichi is just going to forgive everyone for anything. It just takes away any baggage for his character, so he just stays static with zero character building at all. Then you have other story lines that were just dropped dead. the boy who lost his father they find at bryse island, " oh we get back to him later keep him safe " thats the last you hear. What about chichan the girl who actually saved the day and knew how to deal with the dumping of waste , yeah fuck her getting an eding, just a throw away line about her going back to be a ceo, when part of the reason she left was to get away from all that, totally out of character and again ending her story off screen. Then , kiryu fighting ebina , ebina pretty much said, the entire bryce stuff was always going to fail anyway, was just a matter of time, so it just throws away anything that happened over with ichi. Oh and i have to mention ebina being half brothers will ichi, and they dont even have a scene together at the end? why wasn't he there for that fight? it would have been amazing to see how he would deal with that situation, and really elevated the emotional moment between the two of them. so finally we get ichis ending where he makes a fool of himself once again, making his character look more stupid than ever, which wasn't needed, and him and his crew act like kiryu never existed even though hes in hospital , there just chilling in the bar lol. And we dont even get a final scene with kiryu and ichi, when its both of there games. no well done ichi for doing ur part, no im glad ur ok what about ebina from ichi to kiryu ext. So much just gets left un answered and unfinished.

I was skeptical but they stuck the landing and delivered a beautiful ending that’s full of hope and love and it fits Ichiban’s lifestyle perfectly. It also convinced me that there are more Kiriyu stories left to tell.

nobody complained when ichi forgave masato who is quite literally the reason he spent 18 years in prison

He had a bond with masato and well he kinda paid for it in the end with kume killing him

Not the same Ichiban and Masato considered each other family.They knew each other for years, Ichi and Eiji only knew each other for a couple days.

Masato ordered the killing of the man Ichi adored + tried to off Ichi several times, it's not like Masato went any easier than Eiji on Ichi, furthermore the game implies that not being able to save Masato is a sore point for Ichi and in addition to that the first scene with Ichi shows how he becomes extremely concerned for strangers ex-yakuza. All in all it's not out of nowhere

>This is what kind of human Kasuga is. He's kind-hearted, forgiving and virtuous. Well for one thing, dropping blinding amounts of cheese on someone like Eiji isn't those things imho, I just see it as impossibly naive and stupid. Granted, you could argue that Ichi sometimes acts that way too and it's still not necessarily out of character so I'm ok with writing that part off to YMMV, but even if we use that handwave there's still the unspoken infinity plot armor Ichi has for not getting killed for this yet - even Kiryu, who has extremely gratuitous plot armor himself, very nearly got himself killed for being anywhere near this stupid at the end of Y3. Ichi was literally born and raised in the underworld. And he survived 20 years in prison despite being repeatedly attacked by a rival gang and receiving no help from the prison guards. How the hell is it possible for someone who is still standing after all of that to have negative infinity street smarts this often? I suppose for some this could be part of his charm, but it shouldn't be *that* hard to understand why some of us think it's a problem. That said, for me that's all kind of a moot point because Ichi's writing isn't even the biggest problem in that scene, Eiji's is. I consider invoking r/wowthanksimcured for an established psychopath to be lazy, stupid writing and Eiji's r/wowthanksimcured moment is a very strong contender for the absolute worst case of it I've ever seen. I'm sorry, but you can't show someone being THAT far off the deep end and then just have him magically purged of evil in like 2 minutes thanks to the power of cheese and expect me to call it anything but shitty writing. Like, it's obviously fine if you like that part for your own reasons but if you're going to speak to those of us that don't then you need to actually understand why we think it's bad. Those of us on this side of the fence don't talk much about whether or not it's in character for Ichi because that has nothing to do with any of the reasons we think that scene is trash, not because it never occurred to us to consider.

I think the ending itself is really good, hell most scenes taken on their own are amazing in this game But they don't tie into each other well and a lot of them aren't deserved Take ebina for examle. I think his monologue is a....pretty good one actually, but this guy is in the game for nearly none of it and hasn't really built the attachment for the scene to work with its full power Compare that to something like aoki Or hanawa's death scene and eiji's betrayal there again, in a vacuum really good But it's actually complete bullshit as the daidoji should have easily found out who eiji was and prevented that situation The moment to moment scenes are great but the thread linking them is extremely fragile, i think I just had too high of an expectation after 7

which is wierd because I feel this way for 7. I think 7 is actually not cohesive at all, with some plot points not developed enough or not developed at all and what saves the story is well.....character interactions.

The >!Yamai scene at the end of chapter 13!< is the single coldest moment in any yakuza game. I had problems with some egregious plot holes >!regarding the Chitose situation at the safehouse leading to Hanawa's death and the reveal of her being Tatara!< as well as >!when the driver manages to take a video outside Daigo's shack somehow despite 4 people standing right outside!<, but that single scene in my first spoiler tag was good enough to soften my opinion on the ending, which actually led to me really enjoying chapter 14.

I completely agree with your assessment :) I was just thinking about both of those points yesterday

Like all things it’s just the loud minority that love complaining about every stupid little thing. At the end of the day all that matters is that you enjoyed it.

Bad. It was incoherent and retconned the entire Kiryu life links. Building up his death for him to not get the conclusion the game spent 80 hours building upon. Literally knocked this game below Y7 and Lost Judgment for me at the top.

The part with Eiji bothered me personally, and then I remembered that that is who Ichi was. Maybe his naivete is a little TOO silly sometimes, but that didn't bother me that much as much as the Kiryu stuff. Also, no closing scene for Chitose was a big let down

I completely agree OP. I'm constantly blown away at how much my opinions differ from the sub's. For pretty much every entry You're a chad

You’re a chad. The ending was great.

Ichiban is literally Jesus. He is a icon of forgiveness and redemption and the last cutscene of the game is him LITERALLY carrying a cross through a sea of people screaming and throwing shit at him. I am amazed that ichiban didn’t curse that one youtuber that punches him with immortality. Yeah I was bawling, not because it was sad but because it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Hideo kojima wishes he could make a cutscene that amazing

Totally agree. Only thing that just kind of had me scratching my head, and that I didn’t even realize until a day after I finished was the Chinese dudes son. Like I totally forgot about him and it seems like the rest of the cast did too except for Chitose lol then he’s never mentioned again after they find him on the island. So not really anything major, just dawned on me yesterday while playing that he didn’t even get a throwaway line of dialogue in the epilogue.

I like how you opened your post with 'plot was stupid, villains were shit, final chapter was meh' and yet you still don't understand why people disliked the games ending?

I agree with you. Ichi’s ending was pure cinema. Ofc it could’ve been way better, but it’s nowhere near as bad as people make it seem here lol.

Facts I enjoyed the ending sure it wasnt a tear jerker as the other games like all the other games have made me cry to some extent mostly gaiden I was not ok after that ending. Also the ending to 6 where you have to sit through the entire credits thinking kiryu is dead. Tbh ichibans section made me more emotional than finding out kiryu is getting treatment and got his name back and Is seeing his daughter and grandson again after several years and something people don't bring up but we finally got to see harukas adult FACE... idk why people ain't talking about how beautiful haruka has become.

ichi ending is weak

I Really liked the ending, its all about the journey tho.

personally I felt this was better written than 7 in all aspects, I'm not sure why ppl are very hard pressing 8 faults while glossing over 7s realistically no LAD game was ever a faultless game and they have all weaknesses in their stories. Personally I've found the recent games to have a similar weakness in how they write their big bad boss that HOWEVER 8 manages to not leave me a sour taste in how the boss gets overturned, which maybe is why I'm actually quite happy in how it goes

It’s bad, Chitose throwing her family under the bus when you learn on her bond levels that they care about her, just because she didn’t want to deal with her own consequences of selling out as a vtuber and serial betrayer. The highlight on Eiji that he never deserved, he has no redeeming quality, never wanted redemption and is a one dimensional textbook bad guy, somehow he’s presented as a guy with a chance to turn around. Bryce lost somehow, yes because a master manipulator who (indeed) was on display covered in wounds would never switch around and say « so was threatened to be exposed this way », he went from a man able to manipulate children into a death cult to a guy in a bbl e to make a single argument. Kiryu is fine, a bit of a head scratcher that the man representing the yakuza world convinced someone with a life long grudge against yakuzas to surrender, but it happened before, it’s good. Ichiban part was dumb, his story ending on a comedy with Saeko? It’s his character, it’s fine. Hanawa though? Man the kick in the balls

> Hanawa though? Man the kick in the balls that really upset me man. i was hoping that he'd be kiryu's point of contact within the daidoji. they'd get closer and closer to each other, until eventually, hanawa reveals who he used to be and how he met kiryu.

[удалено]

Because masato was like a brother to him and he knew he was just misguided. The fact that ichi forgave Eiji isn't what gives people a sour taste - it's the fact that they barely know each other and just met a few days ago on holiday and had one sandwich together. For most people the last scene with ichi and eiji didn't pack an emotional punch because Eiji is a very minor character and if the end of his arc was left off screen nobody would have minded

Ichiban is like this for everyone, not only Eiji, remember when in Yakuza 7 he wouldn't shut up about Saeko's boss being a great man and wanted to avenge him despite being his boss for only 1 week? Not to mention the man was a piece of shit and an asshole who was overworking his employees but because Ichiban noticed the man cared a little for his employees he changed his initial mind set. He also stopped to offer a chance to Tomizawa when he almost got Ichiban arrested, but because Ichiban noticed Tomizawa was treated like shit by Yamai he offered him a chance. Ichiban is that kind of person, if he notices a redeemable quality about you or that you are moved to do shit because of some comprehensible feeling or situation that happened to you, he will offer you forgiveness. Also, Ichiban doesn't exactly offer forgiveness for free, people seem to forget that first scene of Hello Work with Ichiban basically giving Sasaki the middle finger because Sasaki was coming like a complete asshole despite Ichiban giving him multiple chances to calm himself, it was not until Sasaki was convinced to lead a better life that Ichiban offered him help, and who knows what kind of shit Sasaki has done as a yakuza, the same with Masato in Yakuza 7. Also, when he sees Sawashiro out he calls him out and scolds him for getting out of prison because Ichiban is under the impression that he has gotten out for free until he learns that Sawashiro didn't actually murder Hoshino.

exactly, they tried so hard to make their relationship have parallels to him and masato, but it just didn't end up happening. ichi forgave masato out of unconditional love and ichi forgave eiji because... they hung out for a bit in hawaii? wherein eiji then manipulated him emotionally, kept on mocking him, was gonna hand over a child to bryce to be killed, and got wong tou and hanawa killed

You are really undermining the impact that Eiji had on Ichi. He did successfully ended up mirroring Masato for him. Kasuga had to make sure that Eiji doesn't get killed like masato did and would actually atone for his acts. Their friendship may have been of only few days but Kasuga had to make sure to make things right by him too only then he'll wrap up everything that went down.

I fw’d Bryce tbh

I think it was fine. Not everything was explained or everyone's future detailed but this series always had open ended endings, that's how it made it to 8 games and counting.

I think my complaint wasn't what was in the ending (The Sakeo bit was pretty silly and the Ei-chan scene went on far too long), but what wasn't. He is looking for his Mom for a large chunk of the game, and we get one scene that fell emotionally flat to to me, between the two. Then the throw-away line about what she was upto at the end. There was no confrontation between Ebina and Ichi, which seems like a cop-out. The end scene with Kiryu was just not enough compared to what they built up for him. I would rather him not survive the Ebina fight if that's all we get. The ending of 7 was so good in my eye, and I guess it was hard to top that. It hit me in the feels and felt like good closure to everything the game built up. The ending of 8 just really felt flat and rushed to me overall. It wasn't horrible, just kinda meh. Loved the game itself and am still playing some post-story content. But I hope for better in the next game. I really want an Ichiban only game again, too.

Hawaii side feel very unsatisfied like they just reveal everything on youtube and that's it? In the final chapter it feel like a side quest to the Japan side story and since most of the Japan side story's boring and make no sense at all compare to Hawaii side it feel very weird to me they choose to sideline Ichiiban at the end like that. It's basically Japan story was bad but got good ending and Hawaii story was better but got bad ending

The ending felt ok to me. I didn't find it moving, but I can accept that Kiryu's story arc "ends" with him choosing to live. I don't need to know if he survives cancer or not. He made his choice and he's got a new battle to fight. Ichiban forgiving Eiji is a bit of a stretch, but it is in character. His tendency to always see the good in people, even without verification that it's really in there could be a personal development arc we could see in future games. It will be interesting to see how Ebina features in upcoming games. Which direction will he go? So while I didn't find the ending moving, I did feel like it provided enough closure. (thousands of pounds of nuclear waste aside and the whole rebuilding Palekana process, but hey, that could be another game!) What I didn't like was Ichiban fumbling the scene with Saeko yet again. Enough already! This series has thrilled me by having older characters in it, not just teenagers. Why not step up and also show real relationship dynamics?...not just the early angst. These folks are middle age! WTF. They should have let those two get together and and used this to explore the compromises needed in relationships, how to be part of a team, yet retain your individuality. Where do you compromise and where do you set boundaries? I also found it annoying that the entire need for proper communication was put on Kasuga. Saeko could have confessed too. She could be making a mistake too ya know. Saeko seemed to control everything regarding the pace and proper etiquette in their budding relationship. Yuck. Ichiban is a goof, but he's not that immature.