Despite being on Steam for years, the Yakuza games have just made their DRM-free debut on GoG.com. This would not be especially notable news were it not for the pretty absurd deal that GoG has managed to score to celebrate. It's offering Yakuza: The Complete Series for just over $34 (£27), a package of seven games in the series that, and we counted this scientifically*, our Yakuza-liking UK editor-in-chief Phil Savage has spent 456 hours playing. That's, like, seven cents an hour.
That's probably because Yakuza is great, and each entry in the series does just enough to distinguish itself while serving up exactly the same OTT slapstick violence, sombre and emotional smoking scenes, utterly byzantine and brilliant minigame-slash-sidequests, and fortune cookie homilies by the truckload. "The Yakuza series taught me how to be a Japanese mobster," wrote PCG's Jorge Jimenez, "every day I get up, suplex 25 guys who were rude to me on the street, hit the batting cage, eat cheeseburgers and sing karaoke".
Now there is one oddity about Yakuza: The Complete Series which is that, how can I put this, it's not the complete series. This package includes Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami 1 & 2, Yakuza Remastered 3, 4 and 5, and then Yakuza 6: Song of Life. It does not, however, include Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon. The rationale for this would be, firstly, it's not on GoG yet and, secondly, this was the first mainline game to move beyond Kazuma Kiryu. So if you squint a bit, this is Yakuza: The Complete Series (starring Kiryu).
Oh and do note that, as well as the giant pack with the biggest discount (70%), there's a pack with the first three games for 66% off, and one with the remasters of 3-5 at the same discount.
It's hard to imagine more bang for your buck than this, and if you ever did work your way through them all it would be the deal of the century. But it should be said that these games do often see steep discounts and, if you'd rather just test the waters, you should maybe start by looking for a good deal on Yakuza 5 (66% off): And master the ways of the taxi driver.
(*Phil counted a total of 456 hours. However, his Yakuza Kiwami 2 save was lost when a PS4 hard drive failed, god's way of telling you to play these things on PC, so completionists may want to add another 10 hours or so.)
