Otaku Feature: Kenzan: Prologue

Welcome to entry #1 of my Otaku Gamers UK Kenzan! Diary. 

My intention with this project is so that you can see step by step my progress through an localized title & hopefully try and prove that you can enjoy any game despite it's language barrier. With Kenzan! I have had the good fortune to look into some additional resources to help improve my enjoyment & I will link appropriately.


Entry #1

For this entry I started off with the games prologue, this lasted around 40-50 mins in total and gave me a basic understanding of the gameplay & the general tone of the game. I used this Youtube video 

That saw me through the intro and greeted me into the world Kenzan! has to offer, once that I had finished I moved over to this video. 

From loading that video I pretty much had to sync my gameplay to match the video to help increase my understanding of what was going on. I did try originally to just watch the cutscene in game then plan to watch the video later but I had no idea what was going on in the original cutscene so decided this was the best route. 

I'll be honest and say so far it's not the most ideal way of playing the game as there is a constant stop and starting in order to get the most of the game. I took a brief couple of minutes to explore this new setting, all the while feeling so out of depth without my familiar Kamurocho to haunt. I was set back by the graphics as even for an earlier PS3 title this still manages to stand toe to toe with even Yakuza 4!. 

Storywise this has started as one of the darker entries in the series as it has several elements of "Child prostitution" and is currently set in Gion which is basically a red light district. 
Kiryu himself seems to be a lot more laid back and uninterested in the world around him than that of his modern day counterpart!. What I have to point out is that Kiryu is infact legendary Swordsman Miyamoto Musashi & not Kazuma Kiryu, think of it as watching the Yakuza cast re-enact a play about Miyamoto Musashi. 

After a little running around I followed the giant arrows on my map to the designated areas to continue my quest, I was collecting money for an employer. Kiryu is as such a "Jack of All Trades" so this was a simple fetch quest. When reaching one place I was told to track down an employee, this eventually led into a combat tutorial.

The combat it's self is the standard Yakuza fare for now, around the level of Yakuza 3 as Kenzan actually predates Yakuza 3 by a year. I have yet to acquire a sword as of yet so cannot comment on that combat but so far it's the usual which I am more than fine with. Heat actions are in, picking items up to fight with is in & combos are in, if you have played Yakuza before you'll be right at home.

Once I had finished this task I hit the final cutscene for the prologue and saw another familiar face in Haruka. She asked Kiryu to kill Miyamoto Musashi! upon Kiryu stating she had no money she begs a brothel manager to take her on so she can earn the money for this task. The scene fades to black with a shocked looking Kiryu!.

Overall I am very eager to put more time into Kenzan!, the only issue is how overwhelming the japanese is, I don't speak it & can't read it so having YouTube for the cutscenes is doing well. I'm looking into trying to get a print off of THIS guide which should help me through the more gameplay heavy scenes, especially once it opens up more & I am able to tackle side quests.

That's all for this entry, I hope you have enjoyed it & look forward to writing Part 1 soon enough.

@NamelessAndi