Concise guide to Japanese mahjong for complete beginners (in Yakuza games)
Posted: Tue May 30, 2017 6:09 pm
Hi gang. I'm sharing my Yakuza games wiki article which is designed to give novices a basic functional knowledge of the core rules.
https://yakuza.fandom.com/wiki/Mahjong
It's specifically aimed at people playing any of the Ryƫ ga Gotoku / Yakuza video games that feature a playable mahjong minigame (and the guide now has an appendix with details of the mahjong-related completion requirements for all these games) but it will be useful to anyone starting out with little or no prior knowledge of mahjong.
Background: The first game guide I ever wrote was for mahjong in Yakuza 2 and I went on to update the text for several titles that followed in that series. I later realised that the length of these documents made them less accessible so I added a concise bulleted quickstart section. When I was invited to contribute to the Yakuza wiki in 2012 I adapted this list into a basic article and added a few simple diagrams. Over the past month I've completed a major overhaul to this article - I've added or expanded several sections and included some new illustrations and internal hyperlinks.
Rationale: While some are generally curious and a few even go on to later enjoy the minigame, many Yakuza players only want to play mahjong long enough to complete trophies and in-game achievements and several enter with zero mahjong experience and find it frustrating. With this in mind I provide an abridged summary of the rules that omits a lot of complexities - including scoring calculations and the rarer combinations - while still covering common beginner pitfalls (Furiten or no combination). I've tried to use simple English terms where possible (sequence, triplet, quad, stealing, ready hand, combination) or the various English and Japanese terms used in the English editions of the Yakuza games (prevalent wind, Chii/Chow, Pon/Pung, Kan/Kong, Riichi, Pinfu, Ippatsu, Tsumo, Ron, limit names). I've also tried to keep the overall length relatively short; the guide has doubled in size with the 2017 updates (the core text is about a dozen pages now) but I think all the recent additions are worth it.
Given the above, I'd appreciate any feedback from new or old players. Is there anything you think I should add, remove or change?
Thanks,
Bart
https://yakuza.fandom.com/wiki/Mahjong
It's specifically aimed at people playing any of the Ryƫ ga Gotoku / Yakuza video games that feature a playable mahjong minigame (and the guide now has an appendix with details of the mahjong-related completion requirements for all these games) but it will be useful to anyone starting out with little or no prior knowledge of mahjong.
Background: The first game guide I ever wrote was for mahjong in Yakuza 2 and I went on to update the text for several titles that followed in that series. I later realised that the length of these documents made them less accessible so I added a concise bulleted quickstart section. When I was invited to contribute to the Yakuza wiki in 2012 I adapted this list into a basic article and added a few simple diagrams. Over the past month I've completed a major overhaul to this article - I've added or expanded several sections and included some new illustrations and internal hyperlinks.
Rationale: While some are generally curious and a few even go on to later enjoy the minigame, many Yakuza players only want to play mahjong long enough to complete trophies and in-game achievements and several enter with zero mahjong experience and find it frustrating. With this in mind I provide an abridged summary of the rules that omits a lot of complexities - including scoring calculations and the rarer combinations - while still covering common beginner pitfalls (Furiten or no combination). I've tried to use simple English terms where possible (sequence, triplet, quad, stealing, ready hand, combination) or the various English and Japanese terms used in the English editions of the Yakuza games (prevalent wind, Chii/Chow, Pon/Pung, Kan/Kong, Riichi, Pinfu, Ippatsu, Tsumo, Ron, limit names). I've also tried to keep the overall length relatively short; the guide has doubled in size with the 2017 updates (the core text is about a dozen pages now) but I think all the recent additions are worth it.
Given the above, I'd appreciate any feedback from new or old players. Is there anything you think I should add, remove or change?
Thanks,
Bart