The Yakuza games have gained quite a foothold here in the West. With many wanting to experience the games from the beginning, there’s a lot to love and hate for completionists. Now that all mainline Yakuza games are available on PS4 (Kiwami and Kiwami 2 replacing 1 and 2) players can try to achieve every single platinum.
In this list, we will be judging games according to howlongtobeat.com and psnprofiles.com. This is not an extensive list of difficulty per se, but rather the length each Yakuza game takes to reach 100%. Even though platinums don’t always mean you’ve done everything in a game, for our purposes, we count it.
10 Yakuza—Completionist: 25 ½ hours
The first Yakuza game, incidentally, does not take very long to 100%. On howlongtobeat, the measure of completion is side missions, lockers, and obtaining all the moves. In all, there are 78 side missions, 10 tournaments, 50 lockers, 8 hidden moves along with quite a few moves you can gain through experience.
There are also a few extra things the player can do after you complete the main story: a secret boss (to which you’ll get a lot of money), raise Haruka’s trust to “SSS,” and complete all the challenges under “Battle Review.” And “Battle Review” is not easy, so be prepared.
9 Yakuza 2—Completionist: 40 hours
As with Yakuza, there’s a lot of the same you can do in Yakuza 2. The main story is a tad bit longer but not by much. There are still plenty of side missions (80), locker locations, and hidden moves. No Haruka business this time around, but the Cabaret Club Girls’ missions are required for platinum (PS3 HD).
This will still take you quite a bit of time. The Cabaret Club Girls’ can be made easier with a guide.
8 Yakuza 6: The Song Of Life—Completionist: 51 hours
Yakuza 6 is very tame compared to the rest of the entries. According to a psnprofiles guide, it only requires one playthrough, a minimum of 40 hours, and a score of 3/10 for difficulty. This is most likely due to not technically having to 100% everything to obtain platinum, and since we’re considering platinum as a replacement to 100%, it fits.
The hardest thing is most definitely the Kiryu Clan. It’s more grindy than anything and will require a substantial time commitment
7 Yakuza Kiwami 2—Completionist: 74 hours
Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a remake of Yakuza 2. This means the 100% requirements are much the same as Yakuza 2’s. In fact, comparing the trophy lists, they seem similar.
On average, between Kiwami 2 and Yakuza 2, a completionist run will net you 74 hours vs 40 hours. That’s why Kiwami 2 is higher up on the list.
6 Yakuza Kiwami—Completionist: 80 hours
As with the entry below, Kiwami shares many similarities with Yakuza. One must still max out Haruka’s rank, which there is an additional “EX” rank above the “SSS” rank. There is a particularly strange trophy in which you’ll have to walk 1km around town while holding Haruka’s hand. Plenty of grinding trophies to go around as well.
There is one mission that seems to be unanimously hated, and that is doing the car chase on Legend mode. In general, the Yakuza Legend and Hard modes are a lot of trial and error, but it’s pretty disheartening to get stuck on one section.
5 Yakuza: Like A Dragon—Completionist: 97 ½ hours
From what we can decipher, like Yakuza 6, you don’t need to 100% everything to obtain some trophies. Individual bond levels with other characters are something that takes a bit to fulfill but nothing extraordinarily difficult. And this can all be done within one playthrough.
Comparatively, Like a Dragon’s main story is one of the longest in the Yakuza series. Featuring a brand new main character, there are two extra dungeons at the end that can catch one off guard, so be sure to grind.
4 Yakuza 4—Completionist: 80-100 hours
There isn’t too much to say about Yakuza 4. The game’s main story is quite short, and nothing pops out as being annoying. There is a missable trophy (Fashionista) so be sure to check out all the requirements for it.
If you’re used to Yakuza at this point, this should just be more of the same. Stay strong, stay determined.
3 Yakuza 3—Completionist: 107 hours
While the average completionist run is around 100 hours, this doesn’t account for the more specific requirements that this game lobs at the player. Certain scores must be met with mini-games as well as completing them on the highest difficulty. There are 101 substories to complete. And, of course, how could you be a true Yakuza if you didn’t accumulate 10,000,000 yen.
One thing this game is devilish about is its checkpoints. That’s why it’s almost essential to get the Golden Pistol. Unlike Goldeneye, it isn’t a one-shot kill, but it sure is powerful.
2 Yakuza 5—Completionist: 120 hours
Yakuza 5’s biggest hurdle is probably its length. The grindiest trophies in this game are relatively arbitrary—talk to townspeople a certain amount of times, use special moves a certain amount of time, etc. The Hall of Famer trophy has some conditionals that aren’t immediately clear unless you have a guide.
Again, there really are no surprises. Still, obtaining platinum for any of these games is a feat in itself.
1 Yakuza 0—Completionist: 140+ hours
More of the same: grind for money, complete on the hardest difficulty, a couple of missables, and a healthy dose of RNG. There are no cheat items to cheese the Mahjong mini-game, and the game is at least double the time to complete compared to Kiwami. It is also considered to be one of the best.
Another factor that poses an issue is not being able to New Game Plus in Yakuza 0. The challenge, as always, is not to get frustrated and scope out help if you need it. From the users that have logged their times on howlongtobeat, this is certainly a cut above the rest.
NEXT: 10 Games To Play If You Love Yakuza 0
