Concise guide to Japanese mahjong for complete beginners (in Yakuza games)

Guides and beginner's help. If you're new to mahjong, this forum is for you. All questions are welcome - don't hesitate to ask.

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Barticle
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Concise guide to Japanese mahjong for complete beginners (in Yakuza games)

Post by Barticle » 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 Ryū 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
Last edited by Barticle on Fri Aug 27, 2021 5:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Concise guide to Japanese mahjong for complete beginners (in Yakuza games)

Post by Ignatius » Thu Jun 01, 2017 10:11 pm

I've read (skimmed through, to be precise) it and it was awesome. But I think maybe is a good idea to point out that in the Seven Pairs, 4 tiles of the same kind doesn't make two pairs.

Do you think is a good idea to add this?
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Re: Concise guide to Japanese mahjong for complete beginners (in Yakuza games)

Post by Barticle » Thu Jun 01, 2017 10:38 pm

Thanks for taking a look. :)

It is an important point, especially since a win with seven pairs was the trophy requirement back in Yakuza 4. I do use the phrase "seven unique pairs" a couple of times but I could make the wording clearer and also include this where I first mention seven pairs.

I think the real test will be on the GameFAQs forums after the next English edition (Yakuza Kiwami) releases later this summer. Will there be fewer mahjong queries?

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Re: Concise guide to Japanese mahjong for complete beginners (in Yakuza games)

Post by Barticle » Sun Jan 27, 2019 2:17 pm

Wikia sites are being migrated over to the Fandom.com domain.

The Yakuza Wiki content has now been moved so there's a new URL, although the old one should still work.

https://yakuza.fandom.com/wiki/Barticle's_Introduction_to_Japanese_Mahjong

I'm continuing to update this guide with the completion requirements and other specific info for new Yakuza games - plus any other games from the RGG Studio that feature mahjong, e.g. Judge Eyes / Judgment.

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Re: Concise guide to Japanese mahjong for complete beginners (in Yakuza games)

Post by Ignatius » Sun Jan 27, 2019 5:32 pm

Barticle wrote:Wikia sites are being migrated over to the Fandom.com domain.

The Yakuza Wiki content has now been moved so there's a new URL, although the old one should still work.

https://yakuza.fandom.com/wiki/Barticle's_Introduction_to_Japanese_Mahjong

I'm continuing to update this guide with the completion requirements and other specific info for new Yakuza games - plus any other games from the RGG Studio that feature mahjong, e.g. Judge Eyes / Judgment.
Your work is always appreciated, Barticle. :)
Life is as beautiful as you want it to be, but it´s only one. That´s why you must not get tired of it. Don´t care if you don´t say something that seems "important" because your mere existence is important for someone.

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Re: Concise guide to Japanese mahjong for complete beginners (in Yakuza games)

Post by Barticle » Sun Jan 27, 2019 5:57 pm

:D It's nice knowing that I've helped a lot of people.

Sometimes I'll open a forum thread to post my link and see that someone else has already done it.

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Re: Concise guide to Japanese mahjong for complete beginners (in Yakuza games)

Post by smekiar » Thu Aug 26, 2021 9:20 pm

The link does not work, sadly.

I've seen a link to your guide on a few other sites, since in 4 hours I've only "gone out" about 4 times, I decided to hunt down useful forums.

It would be appreciated if someone can provide a new link if the guide has not been deleted.

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Re: Concise guide to Japanese mahjong for complete beginners (in Yakuza games)

Post by Barticle » Fri Aug 27, 2021 5:45 pm

Hi and welcome.

The guide was renamed by the new wiki admins some while ago. The old address was re-directing okay previously but I see that it isn't now.

The page title is now just 'Mahjong' but that's still the same article that I began.

https://yakuza.fandom.com/wiki/Mahjong (I'll update this in the first post of this thread too.)

Thanks for letting me know! Hmm, I'll need to update some of my GameFAQs guides as well...

Hopefully you'll find this beginners guide useful. Feel free to start a new dojo thread here if you have any questions we can help with.

Bart

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