This review contains spoilers
There are moments in Yakuza 4 where I think it’s the best game in the series and there are moments where I think it’s complete trash. This isn’t an experience unique to this game; if any one statement encapsulates my feelings about Like A Dragon as a series it’s that it’s a land of contrasts, often offering up genuinely fun, exciting melodrama and deeply charismatic characters with one hand while it bops you on the ear with puddle deep (sometimes offensive) political commentary and bloated, meandering mysteries with the other. Something that seems ludicrous to observe now in 2023, when we’re expecting not one but three brand new games or remakes starring Kazuma Kiryu in the next two years is that Yakuza 3 felt like an ending for him. He got out, he made a life, he resolved all his shit, he solved the biggest possible problem not only for his former clan and his new family but also the literal country of Japan lol. And Yakuza 4 makes good on this! It’s at most an epilogue for Kiryu, who is barely in this game at all, being sent off into the proverbial sunset with a feeling of finality in a game that very consciously echoes all three of its predecessors constantly. It certainly inherits everything that consistently sucks about every one of these games and comes up with some new problems all its own, but when the highs hit they hit fuckin hard dude.
Yakuza FOUR. FOUR guys. FOUR chapters AND a finale that is just as long as the other shh shut the fuck up. FOUR stories sort of. FOUR fighting styles. It’s a big explosion in scope compared to what’s come before, and even though on the surface everyone has less to do and fewer options and their bits are all very short, there’s still a lot of thought put into each of these characters and how they interact with the world. Even though each individual part feels truncated this still ended up being my longest overall playtime of the first four games.
Thoughtful might be the word I would use to describe the game at large, which surprised me, because as I’ve mentioned here already and in previous writing about Yakuza 3 I think these games are often obvious to the point of getting in their own way. But we can break it down a bit. Like, the order of the characters’ chapters clearly wasn’t arranged arbitrarily in the scenario planning. Carefree moneylender Akiyama going first makes the most sense in terms of the narrative because he has little personal connection to it but bit personal connection to the established ecosystem of Kamurocho; he eases us back into the familiar setting through a new perspective so it makes sense to see that post-kiryu world via the guy who is most and least similar to Kiryu. He is like Kiryu in that he plays similarly; not mechanically but philosophically, he’s way less technical than the other two new guys, much easier to simply press buttons and win fights. He is personality-wise almost Kiryu’s polar opposite but that makes it more ironic when his part almost plays out early chapters of Yakuza 1 again in miniature, with the inciting Yakuza shooting, the mysterious woman, the suitcase full of money. There is also, of course, the fact that he wouldn’t be here at all if not for the ending of Yakuza 1, where the 10 billion yen exploding from the top of the Millennium Tower gave him the chance to pull him out of poverty. As the game goes on Akiyama’s past is more directly connected to both the events of this game and the events of previous ones than he realizes, but that’s kind of all he’s got; he’s on the margins of this story to the degree that the crush he develops on the main female character being treated as equally worthy of grief to her brother’s when she dies towards the end is actually kind of insulting lol.
With Akiyama having set the stage the two middle chapters are given over to Saejima and Tanimura, who are the characters who actually emotionally anchor this story on the heroes’ side. The game really tries hard to make it about All Four Boys and have Four Bad Guys To Punch at the end but truly this is Saejima and Tanimura’s game, as the entire plot revolves around their pasts, their histories, and how events that shaped them in the 1980s continue to harm people in 2010. They also pair nicely in other ways. Each of them are in a way outsiders in Kamurocho, Saejima quite literally because he’s been away for 25 years (him having a unique dialogue about how things have changed every time you enter a building for the first time is a wonderful touch) and Tanimura because he’s one of the many ethnic minorities of people who come from or are descended from people who come from mainland Asia, most of whom live together in poverty in a small neighborhood-within-a-neighborhood in Kamurocho. They’ve both got more technical playstyles too. I think Saejima ultimately makes it out of the game better off, largely because his chapter comes first and isn’t as burdened as Tanimura’s is by being almost entirely plot-based, and I also think Tanimura’s playstyle just doesn’t fit the rhythms of yakuza’s combat very well, but they’re both great characters who add strongly to Yakuza 4’s central thesis of breaking cycles of historical harm (along with lots of other smaller ideas that this game is chock full of and much messier with).
Finally then there’s Kiryu, who largely comes in at the end of the game like a steamroller to charge in and save the day, except in Yakuza 4 there is a distinct and incredible sense that he has simply done all of this before. Kiryu is to some degree going through the motions. There isn’t a scheme or type of guy in this game that Kiryu has not already done a version of. Once you’re taking down CIA-backed International Arms Smuggling Rings there’s not really anywhere left to go right? But it’s also not old hat for him; he doesn’t do a better job, he fucks up in basically the exact same ways he fucks up every time, and people tell him so. When he tells one of the villains that he Won’t Let Him Get Away With This that guy replies something like “you won’t stop me, you’re always too late. That’s why these things happen.” and it’s sick as hell. Kiryu’s final boss is both an acknowledgment and a failure and his ending is extremely dark. He finally says out loud what anyone with eyes and ears has known for three games: that making Daigo Dojima the head of the Tojo Clan was an enormous mistake, and leaving yakuza life immediately afterward sealed the Clan’s fate to a slow death. The way he fails though is that his attempt to course correct this is to just kind of beat Daigo up, and rather than find a real solution to the problem he created in Yakuza 2, the last scene of the game indicates that Kiryu is simply back in the life, taking a hands on approach to fixing his mess. It may be a form of responsibility but it’s a sacrifice of the life he’s spent years earning, and he does it with a smile on his face. Kiryu will never get out, and the game is ambiguous about these circumstances so it’s unclear whether he knows it. He’s the only guy in the game who can’t break free, only try to massage his problem back out of sight.
I think this core set of ideas in Yakuza 4 is really strong and in fact I think it’s the first Like A Dragon game where I’ve like actually enjoyed the execution on it. The way the story has to be siloed between four discrete chapters definitely hurts the presentation of the overall mystery and conspiracy composition (this one actually probably falls apart in the last chapter much harder than any of its predecessors, an actively comical series of pileups where literally every villain in the game stabs one of the other ones in the back it’s truly amazing), but this truly is a game about The Boys and also one or two of the Bad Boys and to that end I think it succeeds a lot more than it fails. It is true that Akiyama’s central relationship to his final boss exists entirely off screen, it is true that Saejima’s reunion with his sister, the emotional core of the entire story, happens off screen and they in fact never interact at all unless you count him screaming her name a bunch after she’s been shot, and it’s true that Tanimura’s chapter is so completely overtaken by Plot Machinations that almost all of his actual characterization happens in his substories, but hey, I play all the substories, that’s just the kind of gamer girl you’re reading about. These quibbles amount to quibbles, ultimately, paling in the face of the sheer volume of character-driven shit in the game, almost all of it well-worth the price of admission.
And of course, four characters with four different perspectives on Kamurocho means the side content is a lot more tailored than it’s been before. Everyone gets a really tailored experience, with Akiyama’s shit revolving mostly around his two businesses and giving you insight into what his day to day life might look like when he’s not accidentally embroiling himself in vast criminal conspiracies. Saejima has the most interesting section – with him being a very famous escaped prisoner, the city is crawling with cops on the lookout, and Saejima has to make much more careful use of Yakuza 4’s newly-introduced rooftop, underground, and sewer areas to get around undetected. He’s also, obviously, homeless, and integrates with Kamurocho’s homeless community in a way that is more intimate and less cornily exploitative than they’ve been portrayed in previous installments. Tanimura may be a corrupt dirtbag cop but he’s still a cop and a lot of his stuff revolves around doing both Corrupt Cop Stuff and Normal Cop Stuff, which is good for his flavor, and he has two long questchains that involve extended police investigations, one of them tied intimately to his past (in a different way than the main plot lol). Nothing as mechanically interesting as the murder mystery quest in Yakuza 3 but there is some variety to his activities. His real good shit though is the stuff involving his insular neighborhood of Little Asia. As an ethnic minority and a polyglot who gets by in most of the languages spoken around town, Tanimura is both an official and unofficial police liaison for his entire found community, and the game is clumsily but earnestly interested in making him a complicated guy who does bad shit in the name of doing real good for his neglected community.
Kiryu’s side content is the most interesting on a meta level, again invoking this idea of looking back, remixing the past, and inevitable finale that the game will yank away from him at the last second. Almost all of his substories feature characters from previous games, checking in with Kiryu potentially many years since he’s seen them last, showing him how he’s changed their lives in small or big ways. New ones involve helping a woman to stop denying her present and cope with her grief, or Kiryu beating up all the new street gangs that have been moving into the neighborhood. That quest is especially good, overt comedy stretched over several hours as Kiryu absolutely demolishes five purposely underpowered sets of characters whose encounters are weaker than even the random encounters you’ll find at the very beginning of the game. Because that’s who Kiryu is at this point, that’s what this is to him – a nostalgic romp, a reminiscence on that time he did this before. No one who walks up to Kiryu in the street can hurt him, they can’t even TOUCH him unless he purposely offers them his hand before they knife him in the belly.
It’s not ALL good, of course. We still have this series’ most obtrusive writing issue of being able to identify social problems but being too cowardly to say anything about them other than that they exist. Case in point, one of Tanimura’s substories involves three kids in Little Asia tagging buildings with anti-japan graffiti, and they say they’re doing it because they’re pissed at the Japanese government for deporting their dads for essentially the crime of Being Poor. And Tanimura’s response to this is to tell them to shut the fuck up, this situation is no one’s fault, and they shouldn’t complain about it. He says that every one of us has the potential to be rich and happy, and that blaming others and complaining won’t solve anything and all the kids are like wow you’re right! And it’s like??? Tanimura these children are 8 years old they can’t VOTE. Let them complain about the enormous structural problems that tore their families apart and make them live with strangers in a cordoned off area of a seedy red light district, jesus. No One’s Fault, come on.
Or the way Arai insinuates to Tanimura that now that the corrupt cop villain has been thwarted, the Police as an institution will no longer be corrupt, seemingly forgetting that Tanimura himself is so corrupt that he has a famous nickname, and he was doing it totally independently from the vast evil cop conspiracy. This is mostly just funny but it’s another way that the series is just constantly looking to talk about real problems without TALKING about them, without treating them like REAL problems.
Less funny is the return of the series’ persistent Hatred of Women, largely localized to Akiyama but deeply concentrated within him, a guy who loves to belittle his secretary, is generally lecherous and shitty to most women he talks to, and of course, he does own that hostess club where he dates his employees and sends women to work there so they can prove themselves worthy of him lending them money. Listen I like Akiyama as much as anyone, he is extremely cool, but he’s a real fuckin scumbo. There’s also the only major female character in the game, Lilly, who just kind of wanders in and out of scenes, supposedly doing a lot of really sicko shit but never really displaying any aptitude for this sort of thing, always having her moments taken from her, having her events play out just out of sight (including the aforementioned saejima reunion), and being told to settle down because she might get so emotional that she kills herself (seriously lol).
So we’re not batting 1000 (.1000? whatever the good one is, I am only good at batting cages in yakuza 4 idk shit about baseball). But we’re doing altogether better than previous games, I think. I like the vibes, I like how they play with the genre space a little bit between parts via different music for each character unified by a shared jazzy throughline, I like the progression system and how clear and customizable it is, and most importantly how achievable it is when you have four guys who go to level 20 instead of one guy who goes to level 80. On an individual scene by scene basis Yakuza 4 might be the best the series has been yet, and I think the cast here is genuinely fantastic. When Tanimura is the weak link in your chain I think you have a very strong chain. This Is also the Like A Dragon game with the strongest set of villains overall, I think. There are many of them this time, to match having Many Boys be important on the heroic side, and almost all of them are distinct and sympathetic voices who get enough time to be dynamic and interesting dudes, even if their relationships to their particular good guy aren’t always properly fleshed out. I’ve accepted by now that Like A Dragon simply isn’t ever going to be a cohesive package, and Yakuza 4 in particular is a sprawling mass of half-developed thoughts and underexplored ideas propped up by a very strong thematic backbone and a really incredible cast. I know that this series will go in a lot of directions from here, with 5 and 7 being infamously big games and 6 and Judgement narrowing the scope a lot. I remember 0 sitting somewhere in the middle of how I imagine that scale. So I can’t say “this is how I want Like A Dragon to be,” but I can say that I’m happy with this, and I’ll be happy to see the form of it shift more in the future. I only hope that when it does so it’s with the same degree of success I found here.
Yakuza FOUR. FOUR guys. FOUR chapters AND a finale that is just as long as the other shh shut the fuck up. FOUR stories sort of. FOUR fighting styles. It’s a big explosion in scope compared to what’s come before, and even though on the surface everyone has less to do and fewer options and their bits are all very short, there’s still a lot of thought put into each of these characters and how they interact with the world. Even though each individual part feels truncated this still ended up being my longest overall playtime of the first four games.
Thoughtful might be the word I would use to describe the game at large, which surprised me, because as I’ve mentioned here already and in previous writing about Yakuza 3 I think these games are often obvious to the point of getting in their own way. But we can break it down a bit. Like, the order of the characters’ chapters clearly wasn’t arranged arbitrarily in the scenario planning. Carefree moneylender Akiyama going first makes the most sense in terms of the narrative because he has little personal connection to it but bit personal connection to the established ecosystem of Kamurocho; he eases us back into the familiar setting through a new perspective so it makes sense to see that post-kiryu world via the guy who is most and least similar to Kiryu. He is like Kiryu in that he plays similarly; not mechanically but philosophically, he’s way less technical than the other two new guys, much easier to simply press buttons and win fights. He is personality-wise almost Kiryu’s polar opposite but that makes it more ironic when his part almost plays out early chapters of Yakuza 1 again in miniature, with the inciting Yakuza shooting, the mysterious woman, the suitcase full of money. There is also, of course, the fact that he wouldn’t be here at all if not for the ending of Yakuza 1, where the 10 billion yen exploding from the top of the Millennium Tower gave him the chance to pull him out of poverty. As the game goes on Akiyama’s past is more directly connected to both the events of this game and the events of previous ones than he realizes, but that’s kind of all he’s got; he’s on the margins of this story to the degree that the crush he develops on the main female character being treated as equally worthy of grief to her brother’s when she dies towards the end is actually kind of insulting lol.
With Akiyama having set the stage the two middle chapters are given over to Saejima and Tanimura, who are the characters who actually emotionally anchor this story on the heroes’ side. The game really tries hard to make it about All Four Boys and have Four Bad Guys To Punch at the end but truly this is Saejima and Tanimura’s game, as the entire plot revolves around their pasts, their histories, and how events that shaped them in the 1980s continue to harm people in 2010. They also pair nicely in other ways. Each of them are in a way outsiders in Kamurocho, Saejima quite literally because he’s been away for 25 years (him having a unique dialogue about how things have changed every time you enter a building for the first time is a wonderful touch) and Tanimura because he’s one of the many ethnic minorities of people who come from or are descended from people who come from mainland Asia, most of whom live together in poverty in a small neighborhood-within-a-neighborhood in Kamurocho. They’ve both got more technical playstyles too. I think Saejima ultimately makes it out of the game better off, largely because his chapter comes first and isn’t as burdened as Tanimura’s is by being almost entirely plot-based, and I also think Tanimura’s playstyle just doesn’t fit the rhythms of yakuza’s combat very well, but they’re both great characters who add strongly to Yakuza 4’s central thesis of breaking cycles of historical harm (along with lots of other smaller ideas that this game is chock full of and much messier with).
Finally then there’s Kiryu, who largely comes in at the end of the game like a steamroller to charge in and save the day, except in Yakuza 4 there is a distinct and incredible sense that he has simply done all of this before. Kiryu is to some degree going through the motions. There isn’t a scheme or type of guy in this game that Kiryu has not already done a version of. Once you’re taking down CIA-backed International Arms Smuggling Rings there’s not really anywhere left to go right? But it’s also not old hat for him; he doesn’t do a better job, he fucks up in basically the exact same ways he fucks up every time, and people tell him so. When he tells one of the villains that he Won’t Let Him Get Away With This that guy replies something like “you won’t stop me, you’re always too late. That’s why these things happen.” and it’s sick as hell. Kiryu’s final boss is both an acknowledgment and a failure and his ending is extremely dark. He finally says out loud what anyone with eyes and ears has known for three games: that making Daigo Dojima the head of the Tojo Clan was an enormous mistake, and leaving yakuza life immediately afterward sealed the Clan’s fate to a slow death. The way he fails though is that his attempt to course correct this is to just kind of beat Daigo up, and rather than find a real solution to the problem he created in Yakuza 2, the last scene of the game indicates that Kiryu is simply back in the life, taking a hands on approach to fixing his mess. It may be a form of responsibility but it’s a sacrifice of the life he’s spent years earning, and he does it with a smile on his face. Kiryu will never get out, and the game is ambiguous about these circumstances so it’s unclear whether he knows it. He’s the only guy in the game who can’t break free, only try to massage his problem back out of sight.
I think this core set of ideas in Yakuza 4 is really strong and in fact I think it’s the first Like A Dragon game where I’ve like actually enjoyed the execution on it. The way the story has to be siloed between four discrete chapters definitely hurts the presentation of the overall mystery and conspiracy composition (this one actually probably falls apart in the last chapter much harder than any of its predecessors, an actively comical series of pileups where literally every villain in the game stabs one of the other ones in the back it’s truly amazing), but this truly is a game about The Boys and also one or two of the Bad Boys and to that end I think it succeeds a lot more than it fails. It is true that Akiyama’s central relationship to his final boss exists entirely off screen, it is true that Saejima’s reunion with his sister, the emotional core of the entire story, happens off screen and they in fact never interact at all unless you count him screaming her name a bunch after she’s been shot, and it’s true that Tanimura’s chapter is so completely overtaken by Plot Machinations that almost all of his actual characterization happens in his substories, but hey, I play all the substories, that’s just the kind of gamer girl you’re reading about. These quibbles amount to quibbles, ultimately, paling in the face of the sheer volume of character-driven shit in the game, almost all of it well-worth the price of admission.
And of course, four characters with four different perspectives on Kamurocho means the side content is a lot more tailored than it’s been before. Everyone gets a really tailored experience, with Akiyama’s shit revolving mostly around his two businesses and giving you insight into what his day to day life might look like when he’s not accidentally embroiling himself in vast criminal conspiracies. Saejima has the most interesting section – with him being a very famous escaped prisoner, the city is crawling with cops on the lookout, and Saejima has to make much more careful use of Yakuza 4’s newly-introduced rooftop, underground, and sewer areas to get around undetected. He’s also, obviously, homeless, and integrates with Kamurocho’s homeless community in a way that is more intimate and less cornily exploitative than they’ve been portrayed in previous installments. Tanimura may be a corrupt dirtbag cop but he’s still a cop and a lot of his stuff revolves around doing both Corrupt Cop Stuff and Normal Cop Stuff, which is good for his flavor, and he has two long questchains that involve extended police investigations, one of them tied intimately to his past (in a different way than the main plot lol). Nothing as mechanically interesting as the murder mystery quest in Yakuza 3 but there is some variety to his activities. His real good shit though is the stuff involving his insular neighborhood of Little Asia. As an ethnic minority and a polyglot who gets by in most of the languages spoken around town, Tanimura is both an official and unofficial police liaison for his entire found community, and the game is clumsily but earnestly interested in making him a complicated guy who does bad shit in the name of doing real good for his neglected community.
Kiryu’s side content is the most interesting on a meta level, again invoking this idea of looking back, remixing the past, and inevitable finale that the game will yank away from him at the last second. Almost all of his substories feature characters from previous games, checking in with Kiryu potentially many years since he’s seen them last, showing him how he’s changed their lives in small or big ways. New ones involve helping a woman to stop denying her present and cope with her grief, or Kiryu beating up all the new street gangs that have been moving into the neighborhood. That quest is especially good, overt comedy stretched over several hours as Kiryu absolutely demolishes five purposely underpowered sets of characters whose encounters are weaker than even the random encounters you’ll find at the very beginning of the game. Because that’s who Kiryu is at this point, that’s what this is to him – a nostalgic romp, a reminiscence on that time he did this before. No one who walks up to Kiryu in the street can hurt him, they can’t even TOUCH him unless he purposely offers them his hand before they knife him in the belly.
It’s not ALL good, of course. We still have this series’ most obtrusive writing issue of being able to identify social problems but being too cowardly to say anything about them other than that they exist. Case in point, one of Tanimura’s substories involves three kids in Little Asia tagging buildings with anti-japan graffiti, and they say they’re doing it because they’re pissed at the Japanese government for deporting their dads for essentially the crime of Being Poor. And Tanimura’s response to this is to tell them to shut the fuck up, this situation is no one’s fault, and they shouldn’t complain about it. He says that every one of us has the potential to be rich and happy, and that blaming others and complaining won’t solve anything and all the kids are like wow you’re right! And it’s like??? Tanimura these children are 8 years old they can’t VOTE. Let them complain about the enormous structural problems that tore their families apart and make them live with strangers in a cordoned off area of a seedy red light district, jesus. No One’s Fault, come on.
Or the way Arai insinuates to Tanimura that now that the corrupt cop villain has been thwarted, the Police as an institution will no longer be corrupt, seemingly forgetting that Tanimura himself is so corrupt that he has a famous nickname, and he was doing it totally independently from the vast evil cop conspiracy. This is mostly just funny but it’s another way that the series is just constantly looking to talk about real problems without TALKING about them, without treating them like REAL problems.
Less funny is the return of the series’ persistent Hatred of Women, largely localized to Akiyama but deeply concentrated within him, a guy who loves to belittle his secretary, is generally lecherous and shitty to most women he talks to, and of course, he does own that hostess club where he dates his employees and sends women to work there so they can prove themselves worthy of him lending them money. Listen I like Akiyama as much as anyone, he is extremely cool, but he’s a real fuckin scumbo. There’s also the only major female character in the game, Lilly, who just kind of wanders in and out of scenes, supposedly doing a lot of really sicko shit but never really displaying any aptitude for this sort of thing, always having her moments taken from her, having her events play out just out of sight (including the aforementioned saejima reunion), and being told to settle down because she might get so emotional that she kills herself (seriously lol).
So we’re not batting 1000 (.1000? whatever the good one is, I am only good at batting cages in yakuza 4 idk shit about baseball). But we’re doing altogether better than previous games, I think. I like the vibes, I like how they play with the genre space a little bit between parts via different music for each character unified by a shared jazzy throughline, I like the progression system and how clear and customizable it is, and most importantly how achievable it is when you have four guys who go to level 20 instead of one guy who goes to level 80. On an individual scene by scene basis Yakuza 4 might be the best the series has been yet, and I think the cast here is genuinely fantastic. When Tanimura is the weak link in your chain I think you have a very strong chain. This Is also the Like A Dragon game with the strongest set of villains overall, I think. There are many of them this time, to match having Many Boys be important on the heroic side, and almost all of them are distinct and sympathetic voices who get enough time to be dynamic and interesting dudes, even if their relationships to their particular good guy aren’t always properly fleshed out. I’ve accepted by now that Like A Dragon simply isn’t ever going to be a cohesive package, and Yakuza 4 in particular is a sprawling mass of half-developed thoughts and underexplored ideas propped up by a very strong thematic backbone and a really incredible cast. I know that this series will go in a lot of directions from here, with 5 and 7 being infamously big games and 6 and Judgement narrowing the scope a lot. I remember 0 sitting somewhere in the middle of how I imagine that scale. So I can’t say “this is how I want Like A Dragon to be,” but I can say that I’m happy with this, and I’ll be happy to see the form of it shift more in the future. I only hope that when it does so it’s with the same degree of success I found here.
This review contains spoilers
After Yakuza 3 struggled so hard to join the natural progression of Kiryu’s life with the necessities of a Yakuza plot, the sequel took the next natural step and introduced what would become a series staple, focusing on different protagonists. Instead of just following the straight-laced Kiryu and his life of crime, you start with Akiyama, a sketchy guy who runs a legitimate business. That seems to make them perfect opposites, but unfortunately, they share the key similarity of being mostly irrelevant to the overarching plot. The obligatory convoluted power-grab of the day really only involves Tanimura, whose father was killed as a result of it, and Saejima, who served twenty-five years in prison for his involvement. Akiyama’s motivation being his romantic interest in one of the key players is pretty thin, and Kiryu being dragged out of civilian life to save the Tojo clan is starting to feel a bit rote after happening for the third time. It’s not just our heroes who suffer from uneven characterization either, since a cast of four villains were meant to be a matching set. Tanimura gets a showdown with the corrupt police chief who serves as the primary antagonist, but the secondary antagonist is already dead by the time the heroes and villains confront each other. So, even though Saejima should have a well-developed villain to fight, he fights Kido, an underling who had no connection to the event that put him in prison, robbing his story of catharsis. Akiyama fights the guy he thought would make it to the top of the underworld, Arai, but it turns out Arai was a cop all along. Kind of. He was a cop who infiltrated the yakuza, but then started to align himself with them, but to a different family than the one he said he was aligned to, only to betray them to the corrupt police, to then betray the corrupt police and be a genuine criminal? To say that this game includes a hilarious amount of betrayals and allegiance swaps would be an understatement. Kiryu then fights Daigo, the chairman of the Tojo clan, for… some reason. Sure he was involved in the plot, but his goal was to use it to rebuild the clan, so after they fight they're immediately friends again and Daigo resumes his position as chairman without missing a beat.
Needless to say, all this confusingness left me… well, confused. Why were there four protagonists if only two really mattered? Why was Saejima’s final battle against someone he hardly knew? Why was so much time spent on Arai’s seventeen betrayals when he ended up not actually mattering that much? Why set Daigo up as a final-boss-tier villain, only to reinstate him as a good guy thirty minutes later? Really, the only story in this game that checks out is Tanimura’s, but his characterization is just as confusing as the rest. At the start he’s shown to be a corrupt cop taking protection money from businesses involved in human trafficking, but two hours later he’s referred to as a shining example of what a police officer should be. It’s not that the story is a trainwreck or anything, the plot at the heart of it all still basically works, but there kept being moments like these where I was wondering why on earth the story would be written this way. Each protagonist has some good moments, but when everything's pieced together, it becomes a mess, which could also describe the combat. Each character has a unique style that feels great to use, but as you switch from campaign to campaign, no progress is maintained and basic functions need to be unlocked over and over again. That’s what leaves me hard-pressed to evaluate Yakuza 4, it’s one of the few cases where a game is less than the sum of its parts, where individual moments stand out for their quality, but rarely build on each other. I guess I have to come down negatively on it overall since the development Kiryu got in 3 didn’t get to shine much in this game, which feels like wasted potential. Well, maybe as I go onto 5 I’ll finally get the payoff I’m looking for...
Needless to say, all this confusingness left me… well, confused. Why were there four protagonists if only two really mattered? Why was Saejima’s final battle against someone he hardly knew? Why was so much time spent on Arai’s seventeen betrayals when he ended up not actually mattering that much? Why set Daigo up as a final-boss-tier villain, only to reinstate him as a good guy thirty minutes later? Really, the only story in this game that checks out is Tanimura’s, but his characterization is just as confusing as the rest. At the start he’s shown to be a corrupt cop taking protection money from businesses involved in human trafficking, but two hours later he’s referred to as a shining example of what a police officer should be. It’s not that the story is a trainwreck or anything, the plot at the heart of it all still basically works, but there kept being moments like these where I was wondering why on earth the story would be written this way. Each protagonist has some good moments, but when everything's pieced together, it becomes a mess, which could also describe the combat. Each character has a unique style that feels great to use, but as you switch from campaign to campaign, no progress is maintained and basic functions need to be unlocked over and over again. That’s what leaves me hard-pressed to evaluate Yakuza 4, it’s one of the few cases where a game is less than the sum of its parts, where individual moments stand out for their quality, but rarely build on each other. I guess I have to come down negatively on it overall since the development Kiryu got in 3 didn’t get to shine much in this game, which feels like wasted potential. Well, maybe as I go onto 5 I’ll finally get the payoff I’m looking for...
A game that's impossible to truly rank. It's a prime example of what happens when every single person working on something goes berserk, simultaneously.
Among all of the truly baffling decisions with this (really fun to play) game, the two that stick out the most in my mind, all these years later:
- Why does every single new protagonist have at least one scene where they come across as a total scumbag that feels almost contradictory to their ultimate portrayal, whereas Kiryu is now completely shonenpilled and comes across as a 15-year old JRPG protagonist?
- There's one scene where one of the many, many antagonists show up and talks with Saejima, and in this one scene the antagonist is wearing a suit that is a clear mirror of Kiryu's iconic dumbass white suit and maroon shirt ensemble look. The antagonist is clearly being portrayed as someone who's trying to rise up in estimation and become a new Kiryu (a thematic thread that runs through the whole game), but then the antagonist wears his usual clothes for the rest of the game. The whole scene basically just sets up a boss fight for much later in the game. They made a completely new model for him with the suit and everything and used it once. I have never stopped thinking about this scene.
Among all of the truly baffling decisions with this (really fun to play) game, the two that stick out the most in my mind, all these years later:
- Why does every single new protagonist have at least one scene where they come across as a total scumbag that feels almost contradictory to their ultimate portrayal, whereas Kiryu is now completely shonenpilled and comes across as a 15-year old JRPG protagonist?
- There's one scene where one of the many, many antagonists show up and talks with Saejima, and in this one scene the antagonist is wearing a suit that is a clear mirror of Kiryu's iconic dumbass white suit and maroon shirt ensemble look. The antagonist is clearly being portrayed as someone who's trying to rise up in estimation and become a new Kiryu (a thematic thread that runs through the whole game), but then the antagonist wears his usual clothes for the rest of the game. The whole scene basically just sets up a boss fight for much later in the game. They made a completely new model for him with the suit and everything and used it once. I have never stopped thinking about this scene.
This review contains spoilers
Yakuza 4 has such an interesting reputation among fans of the series. Some lambast it as the worst mainline game and a great example of how some of the pre Yakuza 0 games had too much ambition for their own good. Others praise is as this sort of self aware, wacky celebration of the franchise that embraces some of the camp present throughout the games.
I initially fell squarely in the first camp. I liked the first half and thought it was a breath of fresh air that introduced some quite compelling characters to the mix, but felt like it was overshadowed by the absolutely messy and illogical second half. After replaying the game and mulling it over, I still think the second half hurt it quite a bit, but I also have a newfound appreciation for everything the game brings to the table.
Akiyama’s section is such a relaxed, low key way to start things off that reels players in with its charm. Akiyama is quite possibly my favorite character in the franchise. He just has such a striking on-screen presence. His mannerisms, voice acting, facial expressions; the scene at the start of the game where he goads the kanemura member who doesn’t care about Ueno members invading his turf by roasting his clan and then telling him "that’s the spirit", which embodied him as a character. It just all screams: Charisma. He just has that special something that gravitates you towards him.
His backstory and reasoning for starting Sky Finance are also intriguing. I appreciate and love the continuity of it being tied with the Millennium Tower explosion. It just heightens the feeling that you’re in this grand narrative that builds on itself. After losing everything, that explosion gave him a second chance at life. He knows what it feels like to hit rock bottom and he wants to use that money to give people, who he thinks can make good with it like he did, a chance at success. His sub-stories are quite engrossing, comical and help flesh him out more and give us a peek at how Sky Finance functions, which was really neat. They all have this throughline on making the most of your situation and what you have. Always persevering and pushing forward. When there’s a will, there’s a way. And I genuinely just thought that was pretty powerful tbh.
I love his relationship with Hannah as well. They have such a good dynamic with her kind of balancing him out a bit. Her voice actress really hits it out of the park with her performance.
The biggest slight i have on his part is his relationship with Lilly. Lilly is just… a nothing character. I kept waiting for the game to give me something to latch onto, but it just never came. I even remember a specific moment when Akiyama is sitting with her at the cabaret club and they start talking. I’m thinking, finally! Something! And then they just abruptly cut away to the next scene! And I was like, why??? That was the perfect opportunity to not only sell me on their weak relationship, but also give her an actual personality. This not only hurts his part, but she’s his tie in to the story. With their relationship being so uninteresting, it makes his addition to the overarching plot feel forced and unconvincing.
I’m not gonna lie tho, Whiskey and Rhapsody playing right after he finds the person she killed was fantastic. The song has such a mysterious, cheerful, familiar and strangely unnerving vibe to it. It bizarrely kind of made me understand why he liked her; how familiar she feels, how alluring and mysterious she is and how tragic her story is. While I still don't find it convincing, I still felt it somehow.
The switch to Saejima presents a bleak shift in tone. The scene where he ‘kills’ the 18 men is forever edged into my memory; and seeing him express his utter torment, burdened for the last 25 years by the weight of every single life he took just solidified it as one of the most iconic scenes in the series. He’s just such a tragic character who showcases the unfortunate pitfalls of organized crime, and how people throw their sanity, their life, everything away to further their respective clans. Saejima comes off as pretty brooding and intimidating at first, but as time goes on you get to see just how good-natured, thoughtful and down-to-earth he is. He’s a gentle giant, a monster with a heart of gold. That coupled with everything we learn about him throughout the story, just adds to the tragedy of it all.
I’m a sucker for prison escapes, so I enjoyed exploring the prison and prepping for the escape. Hamazaki’s redemption arc was really good and was a nice tie-in to 3. His first death (which should’ve been his only death scene btw…), while being kind of a rehash of Mine’s, was a very emotional scene that struck a chord with me. It reminded me of Kiryu’s speech at the end of 3: "You can learn to believe in others even in the final moments of your life." It isn’t too late for anyone to forge genuine bonds and find solace in them. And Hamzaki finally found someone who could he could call his brother at the very end.
The last part works as well. Having to sneak around town and hiding from the police was a fun change of pace that added depth to the setting and I absolutely loved his reunion with Majima.
Tanimura is a decent character. He might be the only character in the franchise whose part of the story is too plot-focused. I wish we could’ve explored him and his life, and maybe showcased his personality more. The sub-stories kind of helped in that regard, but they just didn’t do nearly enough to satisfy me. Yea we know who his father is, we get a glimpse of immigrant life in Kamurochu, and his personality is shown in substories like the Russian roulette one (his sheer confidence in himself and his intuition) but idk. Maybe they could’ve fleshed out homeland more. Made the characters in it more interesting? Showcased Tanimura’s relationship with them more? I think the substory where everyone cheers him on could’ve actually been quite emotional had they done that. They could have explored his reputation as the parasite of Kamurocho, which is a cool title, but I would’ve liked to see substories revolved around that and maybe go more in-depth on how he adopted the mindset and got the label.
Don’t get me wrong, he isn’t bad or anything. I like his idealistic pursuit of justice; how he’s willing to sacrifice his job, reputation and even life in order to find the truth and bring it to light and challenge the system he’s in. His dynamic with Suguichi was great. A fake man who abandoned his dreams and cowered away from the truth and lived as a tool and cog in the system, and a man who’s so brazenly himself, who’s so hungry for the truth and his ideals that he’s willing to fight the world for it and defy the system he’s in.
I think Suguichi secretly wanted him to know it was him. To set him free from the lie he lived every single day. He wanted Tanimura to do what he couldn’t and aim for the skies.
His stuff with Katsuragi was good too. I liked how there was kind of an intellectual battle going on between the two of them, with Katsuragi smugly explaining his every move. I feel like it made Katsuragi a lot more credible.
Ok so onto Kiryu. Coincidences in storytelling aren’t bad when used sparingly and intelligently. If you have something highly unlikely happen, you can have a character point that out and wonder out loud. Trust me, it softens the blow as long as you don’t overdo it and keep things within the realm of reason. Taiga washing upshore the first time didn’t hurt my suspension of disbelief. Hamazaki getting shot multiple times, falling into the ocean and then magically getting to Kiryu’s doorstep absolutely does. And listen, it wasn’t all bad. Haruka rejecting him added to her and made her feel less of a passive bystander (not saying that she was before) It humanized her and showcased her love for Kiryu and how putting himself in harm’s way impacts her. Moreover, Hamazaki getting to interact and help Kiryu after the way 3 ended was cool. I also teared up a bit when he told Kiryu to protect the Tojo clan because "it’s the only proof that guys like us existed". But was it worth sacrificing the integrity of the story and taking away from his first death scene? I personally don’t think so.
Kiryu’s tie-in to the story isn’t really that strong. He just kind of stumbles into Lilly and decides to help. Then they suddenly make Daigo a part of the equation out of nowhere because they don’t know what exactly to do with Kiryu. He sells out the Tojo clan because it’s going through hard times, but then the plot just kind of forgets about it afterward. I like Kiryu’s relationship with Daigo, so I enjoyed their interaction in the final boss fight, but it felt pretty shoehorned in.
Lily’s death was an almost copy-paste of Mine’s, but repeating the whole leave the gun next to the bad guy shtick gets old and infuriating fast. Also the scene meant nothing because Lilly was nothing and her relationship with Saejima wasn’t really much of anything. They come up with a weird reason to explain why she’s so attached to him when they could’ve easily just sold their relationship via well-directed flashbacks.
So rubber bullet time… So here’s the thing: The rubber bullet plot twist’s issue isn’t that they didn’t notice it was rubber, because the game explicitly says that they’re experimental and only known by a select amount of people. It’s not even because of the misleading directing that made the ramen spilling look like blood. It’s because Katsuragi’s plan hinged on all 18 people getting knocked out and only waking up after Saejima left. It hinged on him being the first to wake up so he could finish the job. It’s also just… pointless? It doesn’t really achieve much. It doesn’t make Katsuragi come off as more competent, because as the game even pointed out, his whole plan doesn’t make much sense. It doesn’t really contribute anything to Saejima’s character besides making his backstory lose weight and It certainly is not a good twist that builds suspense. I guess it makes Katsuragi more dislikable, but the game decides to kill him off shortly after because it was having an identity crisis with its villains. They spend time building him up and actually sell you on him, but then they just throw it all away for no real reason…
Arai and Kido are just bizarre, bizarre characters. Kido is what would happen if you took a street thug and decided to make them the final boss. The game doesn’t treat him as a credible threat throughout. He was a part of some dead end, nobody family that didn’t mean much. They say he hides his true power, but they never really properly show it. He just feels so out of place, like a fish out of water. There’s a good moment where he tells Saejima he wants to do something big and Saejima encourages it by telling him to go balls out. You can see the parallels between them and how Saejima sees a bit of him in Kido, but then they build Saejima’s fucking final boss around that one interaction, which is just silly. They clearly should’ve made Katsuragi his final boss. With proper build-up, they could’ve easily made it work because the foundation was already there.
There are so many issues with Arai that it would make your head spin. They firstly abandon the stuff with him and Akiyama and forget about it(Yes, I know Akiyama’s final boss is Arai, but you can’t tell me there was sufficient build-up for it), which would’ve been a really good way of tying Aki into the story btw, since they did such a good job with lilly… He’s supposed to be this experienced cop but is somehow fooled by the old rubber bullets trick. He isn’t confused by the lack of blood, and he doesn’t check if he finished the job considering he’s killing such a major person. Munakata had no way of knowing Arai was gonna fucking shoot him anyways lol. Additionally Arai just walks out after shooting him and nobody cares. Furthermore, why doesn’t Munakata carry on with the orphanage plan considering he’s not dead?
He’s also just a needlessly convoluted character who switches allegiances constantly and amounts to nothing at the end because they were more concerned with making him a plot twist machine than giving him interesting moments that could connect you to him.
They also fucking leave the gun next to the bad guy for the FOURTH and FIFTH time in 2 games, with Munakata shooting Akiyama and then eventually himself. I do have to say that Aki being saved by a stack of money just made me smile cheek to cheek; it was such a dumb but memorable, larger-than-life moment that kind of made me understand what people mean when they say they like the absurd twists in these games.
The sub-stories as I kind of touched on before were quite good. Not perfect; there’s a noticeable amount of duds, especially on Tanimura’s side, but I enjoyed them a lot. Karaoke was as good as ever and the hostess convos, while not being as refined as the other games, were very down-to-earth and fun. Kamurochu’s expansion works because it’s incorporated well into the story and I feel like it just has such a distinct atmosphere and aesthetic this time round. Idk, just walking around dusk time with whiskey and Rhapsody playing is probably one of my favorite gaming memories.
While I’ve been really harsh on this game, I truly believe it was constructed beyond its major flaws. Whenever I reminisce about Yakuza 4, I’ll think back to the comfort and joy I had playing as aki; the wide range of emotions that were evoked in me with Saejima. I’ll remember Tanimura’s great dynamic with Suguichi and Hamzaki’s redemption arc. I’ll look back fondly on the memorable substories and Kamurochu as a whole. It’s these memories that truly matter to me at the end of the day. They don’t transcend the flaws, but they’re what stick with me in the end.
I initially fell squarely in the first camp. I liked the first half and thought it was a breath of fresh air that introduced some quite compelling characters to the mix, but felt like it was overshadowed by the absolutely messy and illogical second half. After replaying the game and mulling it over, I still think the second half hurt it quite a bit, but I also have a newfound appreciation for everything the game brings to the table.
Akiyama’s section is such a relaxed, low key way to start things off that reels players in with its charm. Akiyama is quite possibly my favorite character in the franchise. He just has such a striking on-screen presence. His mannerisms, voice acting, facial expressions; the scene at the start of the game where he goads the kanemura member who doesn’t care about Ueno members invading his turf by roasting his clan and then telling him "that’s the spirit", which embodied him as a character. It just all screams: Charisma. He just has that special something that gravitates you towards him.
His backstory and reasoning for starting Sky Finance are also intriguing. I appreciate and love the continuity of it being tied with the Millennium Tower explosion. It just heightens the feeling that you’re in this grand narrative that builds on itself. After losing everything, that explosion gave him a second chance at life. He knows what it feels like to hit rock bottom and he wants to use that money to give people, who he thinks can make good with it like he did, a chance at success. His sub-stories are quite engrossing, comical and help flesh him out more and give us a peek at how Sky Finance functions, which was really neat. They all have this throughline on making the most of your situation and what you have. Always persevering and pushing forward. When there’s a will, there’s a way. And I genuinely just thought that was pretty powerful tbh.
I love his relationship with Hannah as well. They have such a good dynamic with her kind of balancing him out a bit. Her voice actress really hits it out of the park with her performance.
The biggest slight i have on his part is his relationship with Lilly. Lilly is just… a nothing character. I kept waiting for the game to give me something to latch onto, but it just never came. I even remember a specific moment when Akiyama is sitting with her at the cabaret club and they start talking. I’m thinking, finally! Something! And then they just abruptly cut away to the next scene! And I was like, why??? That was the perfect opportunity to not only sell me on their weak relationship, but also give her an actual personality. This not only hurts his part, but she’s his tie in to the story. With their relationship being so uninteresting, it makes his addition to the overarching plot feel forced and unconvincing.
I’m not gonna lie tho, Whiskey and Rhapsody playing right after he finds the person she killed was fantastic. The song has such a mysterious, cheerful, familiar and strangely unnerving vibe to it. It bizarrely kind of made me understand why he liked her; how familiar she feels, how alluring and mysterious she is and how tragic her story is. While I still don't find it convincing, I still felt it somehow.
The switch to Saejima presents a bleak shift in tone. The scene where he ‘kills’ the 18 men is forever edged into my memory; and seeing him express his utter torment, burdened for the last 25 years by the weight of every single life he took just solidified it as one of the most iconic scenes in the series. He’s just such a tragic character who showcases the unfortunate pitfalls of organized crime, and how people throw their sanity, their life, everything away to further their respective clans. Saejima comes off as pretty brooding and intimidating at first, but as time goes on you get to see just how good-natured, thoughtful and down-to-earth he is. He’s a gentle giant, a monster with a heart of gold. That coupled with everything we learn about him throughout the story, just adds to the tragedy of it all.
I’m a sucker for prison escapes, so I enjoyed exploring the prison and prepping for the escape. Hamazaki’s redemption arc was really good and was a nice tie-in to 3. His first death (which should’ve been his only death scene btw…), while being kind of a rehash of Mine’s, was a very emotional scene that struck a chord with me. It reminded me of Kiryu’s speech at the end of 3: "You can learn to believe in others even in the final moments of your life." It isn’t too late for anyone to forge genuine bonds and find solace in them. And Hamzaki finally found someone who could he could call his brother at the very end.
The last part works as well. Having to sneak around town and hiding from the police was a fun change of pace that added depth to the setting and I absolutely loved his reunion with Majima.
Tanimura is a decent character. He might be the only character in the franchise whose part of the story is too plot-focused. I wish we could’ve explored him and his life, and maybe showcased his personality more. The sub-stories kind of helped in that regard, but they just didn’t do nearly enough to satisfy me. Yea we know who his father is, we get a glimpse of immigrant life in Kamurochu, and his personality is shown in substories like the Russian roulette one (his sheer confidence in himself and his intuition) but idk. Maybe they could’ve fleshed out homeland more. Made the characters in it more interesting? Showcased Tanimura’s relationship with them more? I think the substory where everyone cheers him on could’ve actually been quite emotional had they done that. They could have explored his reputation as the parasite of Kamurocho, which is a cool title, but I would’ve liked to see substories revolved around that and maybe go more in-depth on how he adopted the mindset and got the label.
Don’t get me wrong, he isn’t bad or anything. I like his idealistic pursuit of justice; how he’s willing to sacrifice his job, reputation and even life in order to find the truth and bring it to light and challenge the system he’s in. His dynamic with Suguichi was great. A fake man who abandoned his dreams and cowered away from the truth and lived as a tool and cog in the system, and a man who’s so brazenly himself, who’s so hungry for the truth and his ideals that he’s willing to fight the world for it and defy the system he’s in.
I think Suguichi secretly wanted him to know it was him. To set him free from the lie he lived every single day. He wanted Tanimura to do what he couldn’t and aim for the skies.
His stuff with Katsuragi was good too. I liked how there was kind of an intellectual battle going on between the two of them, with Katsuragi smugly explaining his every move. I feel like it made Katsuragi a lot more credible.
Ok so onto Kiryu. Coincidences in storytelling aren’t bad when used sparingly and intelligently. If you have something highly unlikely happen, you can have a character point that out and wonder out loud. Trust me, it softens the blow as long as you don’t overdo it and keep things within the realm of reason. Taiga washing upshore the first time didn’t hurt my suspension of disbelief. Hamazaki getting shot multiple times, falling into the ocean and then magically getting to Kiryu’s doorstep absolutely does. And listen, it wasn’t all bad. Haruka rejecting him added to her and made her feel less of a passive bystander (not saying that she was before) It humanized her and showcased her love for Kiryu and how putting himself in harm’s way impacts her. Moreover, Hamazaki getting to interact and help Kiryu after the way 3 ended was cool. I also teared up a bit when he told Kiryu to protect the Tojo clan because "it’s the only proof that guys like us existed". But was it worth sacrificing the integrity of the story and taking away from his first death scene? I personally don’t think so.
Kiryu’s tie-in to the story isn’t really that strong. He just kind of stumbles into Lilly and decides to help. Then they suddenly make Daigo a part of the equation out of nowhere because they don’t know what exactly to do with Kiryu. He sells out the Tojo clan because it’s going through hard times, but then the plot just kind of forgets about it afterward. I like Kiryu’s relationship with Daigo, so I enjoyed their interaction in the final boss fight, but it felt pretty shoehorned in.
Lily’s death was an almost copy-paste of Mine’s, but repeating the whole leave the gun next to the bad guy shtick gets old and infuriating fast. Also the scene meant nothing because Lilly was nothing and her relationship with Saejima wasn’t really much of anything. They come up with a weird reason to explain why she’s so attached to him when they could’ve easily just sold their relationship via well-directed flashbacks.
So rubber bullet time… So here’s the thing: The rubber bullet plot twist’s issue isn’t that they didn’t notice it was rubber, because the game explicitly says that they’re experimental and only known by a select amount of people. It’s not even because of the misleading directing that made the ramen spilling look like blood. It’s because Katsuragi’s plan hinged on all 18 people getting knocked out and only waking up after Saejima left. It hinged on him being the first to wake up so he could finish the job. It’s also just… pointless? It doesn’t really achieve much. It doesn’t make Katsuragi come off as more competent, because as the game even pointed out, his whole plan doesn’t make much sense. It doesn’t really contribute anything to Saejima’s character besides making his backstory lose weight and It certainly is not a good twist that builds suspense. I guess it makes Katsuragi more dislikable, but the game decides to kill him off shortly after because it was having an identity crisis with its villains. They spend time building him up and actually sell you on him, but then they just throw it all away for no real reason…
Arai and Kido are just bizarre, bizarre characters. Kido is what would happen if you took a street thug and decided to make them the final boss. The game doesn’t treat him as a credible threat throughout. He was a part of some dead end, nobody family that didn’t mean much. They say he hides his true power, but they never really properly show it. He just feels so out of place, like a fish out of water. There’s a good moment where he tells Saejima he wants to do something big and Saejima encourages it by telling him to go balls out. You can see the parallels between them and how Saejima sees a bit of him in Kido, but then they build Saejima’s fucking final boss around that one interaction, which is just silly. They clearly should’ve made Katsuragi his final boss. With proper build-up, they could’ve easily made it work because the foundation was already there.
There are so many issues with Arai that it would make your head spin. They firstly abandon the stuff with him and Akiyama and forget about it(Yes, I know Akiyama’s final boss is Arai, but you can’t tell me there was sufficient build-up for it), which would’ve been a really good way of tying Aki into the story btw, since they did such a good job with lilly… He’s supposed to be this experienced cop but is somehow fooled by the old rubber bullets trick. He isn’t confused by the lack of blood, and he doesn’t check if he finished the job considering he’s killing such a major person. Munakata had no way of knowing Arai was gonna fucking shoot him anyways lol. Additionally Arai just walks out after shooting him and nobody cares. Furthermore, why doesn’t Munakata carry on with the orphanage plan considering he’s not dead?
He’s also just a needlessly convoluted character who switches allegiances constantly and amounts to nothing at the end because they were more concerned with making him a plot twist machine than giving him interesting moments that could connect you to him.
They also fucking leave the gun next to the bad guy for the FOURTH and FIFTH time in 2 games, with Munakata shooting Akiyama and then eventually himself. I do have to say that Aki being saved by a stack of money just made me smile cheek to cheek; it was such a dumb but memorable, larger-than-life moment that kind of made me understand what people mean when they say they like the absurd twists in these games.
The sub-stories as I kind of touched on before were quite good. Not perfect; there’s a noticeable amount of duds, especially on Tanimura’s side, but I enjoyed them a lot. Karaoke was as good as ever and the hostess convos, while not being as refined as the other games, were very down-to-earth and fun. Kamurochu’s expansion works because it’s incorporated well into the story and I feel like it just has such a distinct atmosphere and aesthetic this time round. Idk, just walking around dusk time with whiskey and Rhapsody playing is probably one of my favorite gaming memories.
While I’ve been really harsh on this game, I truly believe it was constructed beyond its major flaws. Whenever I reminisce about Yakuza 4, I’ll think back to the comfort and joy I had playing as aki; the wide range of emotions that were evoked in me with Saejima. I’ll remember Tanimura’s great dynamic with Suguichi and Hamzaki’s redemption arc. I’ll look back fondly on the memorable substories and Kamurochu as a whole. It’s these memories that truly matter to me at the end of the day. They don’t transcend the flaws, but they’re what stick with me in the end.
truly, they are, the yakuza 4
Yakuza 4 is probably my second favorite Yakuza game. So far, the series has treated me quite well, with each entry doing something unique and interesting to the formula. Yakuza 4 brings about 4 playable protagonists, all of whom has different and distinct gameplay styles. Akiyama, my beloved, Saejima, Tanimura, and of course, Kiryu. All these characters offer a unique gameplay and story addition, and I ended up loving each of them. Having all these different stories converge into one towards the end was very satisfying to see, even if I do have some minor gripes in how it's executed.
A lot of what 3 and 4 did has been what the series been trying to do doing moving forward, and a lot of the weaker elements from 3 get refined and expanded upon. It is ultimately another Yakuza game though, so a lot of the gameplay elements are similar, but also more refined. It's still very nice to journey around Kamurocho and to soak it all in.
Overall, one of my favorite Yakuza games. At some point, I'm going to have to replay all these games to really have a second look at all of them, but for now, just below Yakuza 0 and slightly above Yakuza Kiwami is a fitting placement.
A lot of what 3 and 4 did has been what the series been trying to do doing moving forward, and a lot of the weaker elements from 3 get refined and expanded upon. It is ultimately another Yakuza game though, so a lot of the gameplay elements are similar, but also more refined. It's still very nice to journey around Kamurocho and to soak it all in.
Overall, one of my favorite Yakuza games. At some point, I'm going to have to replay all these games to really have a second look at all of them, but for now, just below Yakuza 0 and slightly above Yakuza Kiwami is a fitting placement.
akiyama good, saejima whatever, tanimura good, kiryu ok
this game would've been 5 stars if it was just akiyama
Lots to like about this game - although I feel like the story got very weak toward the end and the awesome cinematic feel of the PS2 games seems a bit less polished.
After four games I am becoming very fond of Kamurocho, it's always nice to revisit - all the new characters were likeable and it's refreshing to play as someone other than Kiryu.
After four games I am becoming very fond of Kamurocho, it's always nice to revisit - all the new characters were likeable and it's refreshing to play as someone other than Kiryu.
Ranking the Yakuza games has always been difficult for me, because they're just all so damn great. Most people will say that Zero is the best one, and I agree. But 4 has a special place in my heart -- it's the one I come back to again and again, for various reasons. It certainly helps that it's starting out so chill and noir, with Akiyama, my favorite character of the series, basically just walking the nightly streets of Kamurocho in the rain, taking care of business and stirring shit up. Sure, the story has some of the series' most tone-deaf and/or straight-out bizarre cringe moments, but for me that's part of the charm.
I love how the game expands and focuses on one city district specifically, all the different kinds of people it inhabits, all the secrets beneath (and above) its surface, and how no single person could discover them all. I also love how it does a thing that I wish more open-world (and Yakuza) games would do: keeping the main story short and briskly paced, while filling the side content with subplots that explore the characters' backgrounds and feel like a meaningful part of the narrative.
I love how the game expands and focuses on one city district specifically, all the different kinds of people it inhabits, all the secrets beneath (and above) its surface, and how no single person could discover them all. I also love how it does a thing that I wish more open-world (and Yakuza) games would do: keeping the main story short and briskly paced, while filling the side content with subplots that explore the characters' backgrounds and feel like a meaningful part of the narrative.
it's the funny meme entry of the series
despite the messy and at times godawful plot, I liked the subtext a lot and the main cast is great and the finale is stylish as fuck, mechanically a step up from 3 and is alot of fun to play
despite the messy and at times godawful plot, I liked the subtext a lot and the main cast is great and the finale is stylish as fuck, mechanically a step up from 3 and is alot of fun to play
Decent yakuza game with the worst story in the series. Combat is so overrated getting improved completely in yakuza 5. Story is fantastic for the first two parts, but the rest of the game kind of sucks. First two parts were extremely fun though. My personal least favorite yakuza but still decent.
Hate this game, man
really really good. each part except for kiryu was crafted beautifully, showing the people of kamurocho. kiryu's part was kind of rushed... i really liked the tanimura and akiyama bossfight but it was essentially the ending chapter. none of kiryu chapter had anything to do with kiryu's story development maybe except for part 1.
CRAZY GUY
YA GOTTA GO BALLS OUT
Yakuza 4 is the only entry in the series I had virtually no expectations of. Its reception wasn’t overwhelmingly positive like some of the other entries I’m going to come across, and it wasn’t overwhelmingly “meh” like Yakuza 3. I didn’t really know what to expect outside of just having fun with Yakuza. I’m glad that I had that mindset since this game ended up blowing me away constantly.
The biggest change Yakuza 4 makes structurally is shifting perspectives between four different protagonists, Shun Akiyama, Taiga Saejima, Masayoshi Tanimura, and Kazuma Kiryu. Each one of them has their own backgrounds, fighting styles and walks of life. I think this was a fantastic decision for a multitude of reasons. First, the pacing greatly benefits from this. Experiencing each of the protags is varied enough to make each chapter of the story feel fresh, while still having a good amount of unified elements to them so your own skill can transfer over to everyone relatively well. The pacing of each part is also pretty brisk, so it never felt exhausting to go through, even during sessions where I binged the game. It also made it really cool to see the stories of the protags intersect, which is most prominent in the main plotlines of Tanimura and Kiryu’s parts. I’m excited to see how 5 expands on it.
The fighting styles of all the protags are really fun to use. Ranking them from my least favorite to favorite, I’d go Tanimura, then Saejima, then Kiryu, then Akiyama. I’ll go over them briefly here. Tanimura is pretty good, I like the use of combo enders and parries, though I think he’s the weakest for how his strengths aren’t really explored until the literal final boss. Saejima is kind of like a heavyweight character in a fighting game, focusing on charging up really strong attacks and powering through enemy strikes, which have a huge amount of impact to them. He also probably has my favorite boss lineup in the game, especially the ones in his 4th chapter. Kiryu is as satisfying to play as ever, especially with how his red heat mechanic sets him apart. Akiyama ended up being my favorite one to play as due to his focus on rapid movement and blitzing enemies. He’s like playing Yakuza in turbo mode, and I think the bosses also do a good job of taking advantage of that. Even if I enjoyed some of them more than others, I think all of them really come together super well in their final bosses.
Something else that made it really enjoyable is how the leveling system works. First, I prefer the spirit orb system in general to the exp bar system of the first three games. It feels much less cumbersome and lets you make an effort to unlock more advanced moves as soon as you can. It’s a shame that the ones post-5 seem to use different systems since this is probably the best leveling has been. It’s also helped by the fact that you level up really fast. It’s a choice that I feel was made to accommodate the multiple protagonists, and it works really well for it and lets combat open up pretty quickly.
Quick note, the soundtrack is incredible, strong contender for my favorite in the series. The songs here are some of the most stylish they've ever been, some favorites being Akiyama and Tanimura's battle themes. The main theme in particular is probably the best in the franchise that I've heard.
I generally really liked the narrative. Each of the main protagonists have compelling arcs, their values are put to the test quite a bit. The standout of the newcomers is definitely Saejima. The suffering he went through and how it informs his ideologies are incredibly gripping. That one scene in Purgatory REALLY got to me. The recurring theme of police corruption made the villain plot pretty compelling, even if I thought the villains themselves were a bit on the weaker side. The only thing that holds it back from being at the top of its class is that some of the plot twists are REALLY dumb, even for this series. (A specific archetype of the “Kiryu doesn’t kill” jokes hit different after Tanimura’s part ends) I have more to say about each of the individual characters and their chapters in the journal entries I wrote as I played through the game.
Overall I’m really happy with my experience with this game. I’ll probably wait a little bit before jumping into Yakuza 5, since I’m aware of how MASSIVE that game is. As of now, there’s just two games left in my journey through the main series. To see the rest of this through, I gotta go balls out.
Yakuza 4 is the only entry in the series I had virtually no expectations of. Its reception wasn’t overwhelmingly positive like some of the other entries I’m going to come across, and it wasn’t overwhelmingly “meh” like Yakuza 3. I didn’t really know what to expect outside of just having fun with Yakuza. I’m glad that I had that mindset since this game ended up blowing me away constantly.
The biggest change Yakuza 4 makes structurally is shifting perspectives between four different protagonists, Shun Akiyama, Taiga Saejima, Masayoshi Tanimura, and Kazuma Kiryu. Each one of them has their own backgrounds, fighting styles and walks of life. I think this was a fantastic decision for a multitude of reasons. First, the pacing greatly benefits from this. Experiencing each of the protags is varied enough to make each chapter of the story feel fresh, while still having a good amount of unified elements to them so your own skill can transfer over to everyone relatively well. The pacing of each part is also pretty brisk, so it never felt exhausting to go through, even during sessions where I binged the game. It also made it really cool to see the stories of the protags intersect, which is most prominent in the main plotlines of Tanimura and Kiryu’s parts. I’m excited to see how 5 expands on it.
The fighting styles of all the protags are really fun to use. Ranking them from my least favorite to favorite, I’d go Tanimura, then Saejima, then Kiryu, then Akiyama. I’ll go over them briefly here. Tanimura is pretty good, I like the use of combo enders and parries, though I think he’s the weakest for how his strengths aren’t really explored until the literal final boss. Saejima is kind of like a heavyweight character in a fighting game, focusing on charging up really strong attacks and powering through enemy strikes, which have a huge amount of impact to them. He also probably has my favorite boss lineup in the game, especially the ones in his 4th chapter. Kiryu is as satisfying to play as ever, especially with how his red heat mechanic sets him apart. Akiyama ended up being my favorite one to play as due to his focus on rapid movement and blitzing enemies. He’s like playing Yakuza in turbo mode, and I think the bosses also do a good job of taking advantage of that. Even if I enjoyed some of them more than others, I think all of them really come together super well in their final bosses.
Something else that made it really enjoyable is how the leveling system works. First, I prefer the spirit orb system in general to the exp bar system of the first three games. It feels much less cumbersome and lets you make an effort to unlock more advanced moves as soon as you can. It’s a shame that the ones post-5 seem to use different systems since this is probably the best leveling has been. It’s also helped by the fact that you level up really fast. It’s a choice that I feel was made to accommodate the multiple protagonists, and it works really well for it and lets combat open up pretty quickly.
Quick note, the soundtrack is incredible, strong contender for my favorite in the series. The songs here are some of the most stylish they've ever been, some favorites being Akiyama and Tanimura's battle themes. The main theme in particular is probably the best in the franchise that I've heard.
I generally really liked the narrative. Each of the main protagonists have compelling arcs, their values are put to the test quite a bit. The standout of the newcomers is definitely Saejima. The suffering he went through and how it informs his ideologies are incredibly gripping. That one scene in Purgatory REALLY got to me. The recurring theme of police corruption made the villain plot pretty compelling, even if I thought the villains themselves were a bit on the weaker side. The only thing that holds it back from being at the top of its class is that some of the plot twists are REALLY dumb, even for this series. (A specific archetype of the “Kiryu doesn’t kill” jokes hit different after Tanimura’s part ends) I have more to say about each of the individual characters and their chapters in the journal entries I wrote as I played through the game.
Overall I’m really happy with my experience with this game. I’ll probably wait a little bit before jumping into Yakuza 5, since I’m aware of how MASSIVE that game is. As of now, there’s just two games left in my journey through the main series. To see the rest of this through, I gotta go balls out.
never trust an rgg fan who thinks 4 is one of the worst entries
balas de borracha né
IT'S SELFISH DEED IT'S NOT FREEDOM
EVEN IF FALLS DOWN
EVEN IF FALLS DOWN
+two great additions to the series: akiyama and saejima. great eccentric personalities to take over the mantle from kiryu
+saejima's charge moves and tanimura's parry breathe some new life into yakuza's tried-and-true combat
+the best majima boss battle up to this point in the series
+table tennis has been added to yakuza 3's roster of minigames
+ps3 version retains much more jp content than yakuza 3, tho the quiz game is still missing
+hamazaki from yakuza 3 returns surprisingly, and gets a touching redemption arc to boot (for the most part, anyway)
+boxcelios 2!! and the first one returns too as an unlockable
+the non-kiryu characters gets a master with their own challenges, which is a first in the series. they do a good job staying away from just "beat up X enemies" during the challenges too
+low bar but on ps3 I think the overall resolution is better than yakuza 3 at multiple points during the game. on ps4 this is a non-issue
-the plot is completely nonsensical. even for a series that favors flash over solid writing, this game is incomprehensible past the midway point
-each act focuses on a single character, and that character can not be used until the finale after their act is done. this renders their substories and exclusive minigames inaccessible as well
-saejima compounds the above issue by being unable to access certain minigames like karaoke or the hostess club. on top of this, his act is roughly the longest in the game
-the number of substories has been cut down significantly from yakuza 3, with ~120 in that game and 66 in this one (counting all four Amon encounters)
-the substories are divvied up between the characters, leaving them with very few substories each. you won't be running into countless substories like in previous games
-each character starts at lvl 1 at the beginning of their act, making the difficulty feel like it's at an introductory level for most of the game. thankfully kiryu starts with an upgraded kit in his act
-kiryu's act is rather short and he himself has little relevance to the plot
-only kamurocho is available, and the three new areas (rooftops, underground, and little asia) are underutilized and annoying to navigate
-at least one entire action stage is reused from yakuza 3, I get that assets need to be reused but this was a little too far
-hostess maker (akiyama's exclusive feature) is glorified dress-up and frankly not engaging. sucks that it's required for multiple trophies
-many of the better aspects of the game, such as gang encounters, masters, and the police scanner, have negligible rewards beyond just progression ie no trophies and they don't count towards substories
it's really hard to recommend this game at all given that the story/structure have serious issues, much of the content is retained from yakuza 3, and an average playtime is the longest in the series yet (I didn't dilly-dally as much as I usually do in a yakuza game and still ended up at 35 hours by the end). it's not unplayable by any means and it retains much of the good features of other yakuza games, but this one should only be played to set up the story of yakuza 5
+saejima's charge moves and tanimura's parry breathe some new life into yakuza's tried-and-true combat
+the best majima boss battle up to this point in the series
+table tennis has been added to yakuza 3's roster of minigames
+ps3 version retains much more jp content than yakuza 3, tho the quiz game is still missing
+hamazaki from yakuza 3 returns surprisingly, and gets a touching redemption arc to boot (for the most part, anyway)
+boxcelios 2!! and the first one returns too as an unlockable
+the non-kiryu characters gets a master with their own challenges, which is a first in the series. they do a good job staying away from just "beat up X enemies" during the challenges too
+low bar but on ps3 I think the overall resolution is better than yakuza 3 at multiple points during the game. on ps4 this is a non-issue
-the plot is completely nonsensical. even for a series that favors flash over solid writing, this game is incomprehensible past the midway point
-each act focuses on a single character, and that character can not be used until the finale after their act is done. this renders their substories and exclusive minigames inaccessible as well
-saejima compounds the above issue by being unable to access certain minigames like karaoke or the hostess club. on top of this, his act is roughly the longest in the game
-the number of substories has been cut down significantly from yakuza 3, with ~120 in that game and 66 in this one (counting all four Amon encounters)
-the substories are divvied up between the characters, leaving them with very few substories each. you won't be running into countless substories like in previous games
-each character starts at lvl 1 at the beginning of their act, making the difficulty feel like it's at an introductory level for most of the game. thankfully kiryu starts with an upgraded kit in his act
-kiryu's act is rather short and he himself has little relevance to the plot
-only kamurocho is available, and the three new areas (rooftops, underground, and little asia) are underutilized and annoying to navigate
-at least one entire action stage is reused from yakuza 3, I get that assets need to be reused but this was a little too far
-hostess maker (akiyama's exclusive feature) is glorified dress-up and frankly not engaging. sucks that it's required for multiple trophies
-many of the better aspects of the game, such as gang encounters, masters, and the police scanner, have negligible rewards beyond just progression ie no trophies and they don't count towards substories
it's really hard to recommend this game at all given that the story/structure have serious issues, much of the content is retained from yakuza 3, and an average playtime is the longest in the series yet (I didn't dilly-dally as much as I usually do in a yakuza game and still ended up at 35 hours by the end). it's not unplayable by any means and it retains much of the good features of other yakuza games, but this one should only be played to set up the story of yakuza 5
Still one of my favourite Yakuza games. The new playable characters are all great additions to the series, and the story is over the top. One of my favourite finales in video games.
Takes steps to expand the scope of the whole Yakuza series thing with mixed results. Most notably, it introduces three new playable characters in addition to Kiryu who range from pretty well-sketched (Akiyama) to dull (Saejima) to totally unlikable (Tanimura). The expanded Kamurocho map is a bit of a miss as well, with the rooftops, underground areas, and especially Little Asia being more confusing than anything. They probably should have just done another all-new map instead. Coinciding with the new characters and areas are some minor new gameplay focuses -- stuff like stealth sections and forced gambling sequences -- that are weird at best, tedious at worst. They deploy these to try to make the new characters' chapters feel unique, but that ends up not being a positive -- you'll just miss running around as Kiryu.
So, if the new stuff is meh, does it at least get the old Yakuza standards right? For the most part, yes. There's tons of stuff to do and all of the Kamurocho charm and humor is present and accounted for. The plot is less impactful than YAKUZA 3 because it's more convoluted, weirdly paced, and largely revolves around all these new characters we don't really care about, but Kiryu and Akiyama's best character moments hold things together.
Definitely in the lower tier of Yakuza games, but of course, that places it well above just about everything else by default.
So, if the new stuff is meh, does it at least get the old Yakuza standards right? For the most part, yes. There's tons of stuff to do and all of the Kamurocho charm and humor is present and accounted for. The plot is less impactful than YAKUZA 3 because it's more convoluted, weirdly paced, and largely revolves around all these new characters we don't really care about, but Kiryu and Akiyama's best character moments hold things together.
Definitely in the lower tier of Yakuza games, but of course, that places it well above just about everything else by default.
Yakuza 4 is a game which I have very complex feelings about.
Gameplay wise, its solid. Fixes every issue from 3 and has a well designed campaign overall minus an awful final boss.
Story wise.....its straight up awful. Its well acted and well presented, as tradition. But its its own worse enemy. Setting up interesting plot points it either drops or ruins. The worse offender being rubber bullets. I get that it dosent change much for Saejima's character as he still intended to do it. But it just goes to show the warped morality of these games, as Saejima is now somehow redeemable because of a technicality. Worse even is that the rubber bullets point is REUSED, TWICE.
All for a messy criminal/police corruption conspiracy that dosent really know what its trying to say.
I'm going easy on this game because its one of numerous entries in a very silly series, and the gameplay loop is that good compared to 3. So a story blunder dosent matter that much in the end. But this is one of the worse stories i've ever seen in any game ever. Its saved by a very few excellent moments, all in Saejima's story (the Haruka part, even through unconfortable, took balls to do, and his speech at the end of the pit fight)
Ultimately, it cant save it from being I think the worse chapter in the Yakuza franchise. This is a series that is built on its narrative and when its narrative fails. I feel cheated. Its not Last of Us 2 level bad. In the sense that it does not burn any bridges, it dosent diminish any previous or future games's quality. But its still awful
Gameplay wise, its solid. Fixes every issue from 3 and has a well designed campaign overall minus an awful final boss.
Story wise.....its straight up awful. Its well acted and well presented, as tradition. But its its own worse enemy. Setting up interesting plot points it either drops or ruins. The worse offender being rubber bullets. I get that it dosent change much for Saejima's character as he still intended to do it. But it just goes to show the warped morality of these games, as Saejima is now somehow redeemable because of a technicality. Worse even is that the rubber bullets point is REUSED, TWICE.
All for a messy criminal/police corruption conspiracy that dosent really know what its trying to say.
I'm going easy on this game because its one of numerous entries in a very silly series, and the gameplay loop is that good compared to 3. So a story blunder dosent matter that much in the end. But this is one of the worse stories i've ever seen in any game ever. Its saved by a very few excellent moments, all in Saejima's story (the Haruka part, even through unconfortable, took balls to do, and his speech at the end of the pit fight)
Ultimately, it cant save it from being I think the worse chapter in the Yakuza franchise. This is a series that is built on its narrative and when its narrative fails. I feel cheated. Its not Last of Us 2 level bad. In the sense that it does not burn any bridges, it dosent diminish any previous or future games's quality. But its still awful
new characters are cool!!
saejima segment
oh fuck!!! this fucking sucks!!!!
its a nice change of pace to get MCs and stories who arent kiryu and have new fighting styles to boot, even if things end up half baked or lacking that same realised polish that kiryu got from 3 games of progress.
story is very love it or hate it especially with The Funny Plot Point everyone mentions.
saejima segment
oh fuck!!! this fucking sucks!!!!
its a nice change of pace to get MCs and stories who arent kiryu and have new fighting styles to boot, even if things end up half baked or lacking that same realised polish that kiryu got from 3 games of progress.
story is very love it or hate it especially with The Funny Plot Point everyone mentions.
Le premier jeu Yakuza en ordre de sortie que j'ai réellement apprécié
Points positifs:
- Une nette amélioration des graphismes en ce qui concerne les modèles 3D des personnages avec plusieurs face capture d'acteurs
- Des biens meilleures substory et minijeux que le 4
- Une atmosphère excellente
- Arrivée de 2 excellents personnages (Akiyama et Saejima)
- Une énorme amélioration du système de combat (Les ennemis ne bloquent plus, il y a beaucoup plus de heat actions)
- Des très bons boss malgré qu'ils soient beaucoup trop faciles
- Des bonnes QTE et des dynamic intro pour quasiment tous les combats
- Quelques personnages secondaires sympathiques (Sugiuchi Minami et Kido)
- Un excellent début avec Akiyama et Saejima qui ralentit un peu avec Tanimura et Kiryu, pour redémarrer avec une très bonne fin
- Le seul jeu dans lequel Daigo est un bon personnage
- Des nouvelles additions sympa comme les revelations, les toits, les sous-sols
Points négatifs:
- Quelques points du 3 n'ont pas été améliorés (rigidité du gameplay en dehors des combats)
- Des moments de lenteurs assez chiants dans les parties de Tanimura et Kiryu
- Kiryu qui joue un rôle quasi-secondaire dans ce jeu
- La soeur de Saejima j'ai oublié son nom carrément
- Des points de l'histoire qui ont été vite abandonné mais qui avaient du potentiel (la relation entre Saejima et son patriarche, l'ancienne vie d'Akiyama et son ex, le père de Tanimura, tout ça aurait pu être bien mieux développé)
- Des antagonistes très médiocres
- Un chapitre qui se résume à 50 twists à la seconde au point ou ça te désensibilise
- Le fameux trope de Yakuza ou un perso s'apprête à réveler quelque chose et se fait tirer dessus par derrière
- L'autre trope de Yakuza ou Kiryu laisse le méchant avec un fusil chargé
Points positifs:
- Une nette amélioration des graphismes en ce qui concerne les modèles 3D des personnages avec plusieurs face capture d'acteurs
- Des biens meilleures substory et minijeux que le 4
- Une atmosphère excellente
- Arrivée de 2 excellents personnages (Akiyama et Saejima)
- Une énorme amélioration du système de combat (Les ennemis ne bloquent plus, il y a beaucoup plus de heat actions)
- Des très bons boss malgré qu'ils soient beaucoup trop faciles
- Des bonnes QTE et des dynamic intro pour quasiment tous les combats
- Quelques personnages secondaires sympathiques (Sugiuchi Minami et Kido)
- Un excellent début avec Akiyama et Saejima qui ralentit un peu avec Tanimura et Kiryu, pour redémarrer avec une très bonne fin
- Le seul jeu dans lequel Daigo est un bon personnage
- Des nouvelles additions sympa comme les revelations, les toits, les sous-sols
Points négatifs:
- Quelques points du 3 n'ont pas été améliorés (rigidité du gameplay en dehors des combats)
- Des moments de lenteurs assez chiants dans les parties de Tanimura et Kiryu
- Kiryu qui joue un rôle quasi-secondaire dans ce jeu
- La soeur de Saejima j'ai oublié son nom carrément
- Des points de l'histoire qui ont été vite abandonné mais qui avaient du potentiel (la relation entre Saejima et son patriarche, l'ancienne vie d'Akiyama et son ex, le père de Tanimura, tout ça aurait pu être bien mieux développé)
- Des antagonistes très médiocres
- Un chapitre qui se résume à 50 twists à la seconde au point ou ça te désensibilise
- Le fameux trope de Yakuza ou un perso s'apprête à réveler quelque chose et se fait tirer dessus par derrière
- L'autre trope de Yakuza ou Kiryu laisse le méchant avec un fusil chargé
they should've given my homie hamazaki more screen time
This review contains spoilers
This game suffers greatly from brand-recognition-itis.
This is an interesting case to analyze. Prior to playing it for the first time, I had heard on multiple occasions that this was one of the weakest entries in the franchise, some people even going as far as to say that it's worse than the infamous Yakuza 3. Upon starting it and playing roughly the first half, I could not see that at all. The new characters were interesting, the story was doing a fine job at interweaving itself and going interesting places, the pacing was engaging, everything was clicking. It was also interesting to see what Saejima, a character that was hinted at 4 entire games ago (chronologically, of course), was up to and how he got in that situation.
However, as soon as that part ends, the solid foundation that had been built up to this point starts slowly dissassembling itself and for the opposite cause of what I had imagined. You see, games like Devil May Cry 4, Metal Gear Solid 2 and Street Fighter 3 taught me that the average gamer does not like when an established franchise attempts to change it's protagonist (with the ironic exception of RGG7), so I was fully expecting that this would be the primary cause of contempt towards this game, only to be surprised by the fact that it's the opposite. Kiryu being shoehorned into this game actively hurts the experience.
My suspension-of-disbelief was thrown over the window when the 45-years-old walking Deus-ex-machina that is Kiryu gets special summoned from the realms beyond to solve a large-scale issue that has nothing to do with him. Loads of plot conveniences had to be employed to get him in the picture, some of them with GROTESQUE execution. Many plot threads had really unsatisfying conclusions, like Kiryu single-handedly defeating EVERY SINGLE MEMBER of the clan that was, just a few hours ago, "posing a threat" to the Tojo clan. A great deal of bloat was added as well, and the interesting premise that the game starts out with had to be injected with layer upon layer of plot contrivances just to keep that ball rolling. Motivations also get weaker as the game goes on, with characters even wondering why they're still in the story when there's nothing in it for them anymore, and the answers are never satisfying.
The crooked police chief is also an extremely annoying villain that stands out like a sore thumb amongst the gallery of RGG villains, and the other main villain, Arai, barely shows up in the game at all. His motives are hazy and poorly explained, and the stakes felt a lot lower this time around.
Also Saejima's sister relationship with him is really gross and she's a really boring character. Always acts the same exact way in every scene and I can't sympathize with her after she murdered a lot of people with such a weak motive.
Just to glance over the technical aspects, this game plays a lot better than Y3 and there are some neat new locations that help flesh out the urban ambiance even more, such as the rooftops and the underground mall. The soundtrack, however, was very unmemorable. The final bossfight with Tanimura was horrendous as well.
Overall, this is a hollower experience than other Yakuzas, but I would not say that it's worse than Y3 because at least it never annoyed me or made me feel like I wasted my time by playing it.
P.S.: The rubber bullets twist was not bad, you people just misunderstood it. It was neat to see a plan failing because it was poorly made and getting called out for it, first time I see this in a game.
This is an interesting case to analyze. Prior to playing it for the first time, I had heard on multiple occasions that this was one of the weakest entries in the franchise, some people even going as far as to say that it's worse than the infamous Yakuza 3. Upon starting it and playing roughly the first half, I could not see that at all. The new characters were interesting, the story was doing a fine job at interweaving itself and going interesting places, the pacing was engaging, everything was clicking. It was also interesting to see what Saejima, a character that was hinted at 4 entire games ago (chronologically, of course), was up to and how he got in that situation.
However, as soon as that part ends, the solid foundation that had been built up to this point starts slowly dissassembling itself and for the opposite cause of what I had imagined. You see, games like Devil May Cry 4, Metal Gear Solid 2 and Street Fighter 3 taught me that the average gamer does not like when an established franchise attempts to change it's protagonist (with the ironic exception of RGG7), so I was fully expecting that this would be the primary cause of contempt towards this game, only to be surprised by the fact that it's the opposite. Kiryu being shoehorned into this game actively hurts the experience.
My suspension-of-disbelief was thrown over the window when the 45-years-old walking Deus-ex-machina that is Kiryu gets special summoned from the realms beyond to solve a large-scale issue that has nothing to do with him. Loads of plot conveniences had to be employed to get him in the picture, some of them with GROTESQUE execution. Many plot threads had really unsatisfying conclusions, like Kiryu single-handedly defeating EVERY SINGLE MEMBER of the clan that was, just a few hours ago, "posing a threat" to the Tojo clan. A great deal of bloat was added as well, and the interesting premise that the game starts out with had to be injected with layer upon layer of plot contrivances just to keep that ball rolling. Motivations also get weaker as the game goes on, with characters even wondering why they're still in the story when there's nothing in it for them anymore, and the answers are never satisfying.
The crooked police chief is also an extremely annoying villain that stands out like a sore thumb amongst the gallery of RGG villains, and the other main villain, Arai, barely shows up in the game at all. His motives are hazy and poorly explained, and the stakes felt a lot lower this time around.
Also Saejima's sister relationship with him is really gross and she's a really boring character. Always acts the same exact way in every scene and I can't sympathize with her after she murdered a lot of people with such a weak motive.
Just to glance over the technical aspects, this game plays a lot better than Y3 and there are some neat new locations that help flesh out the urban ambiance even more, such as the rooftops and the underground mall. The soundtrack, however, was very unmemorable. The final bossfight with Tanimura was horrendous as well.
Overall, this is a hollower experience than other Yakuzas, but I would not say that it's worse than Y3 because at least it never annoyed me or made me feel like I wasted my time by playing it.
P.S.: The rubber bullets twist was not bad, you people just misunderstood it. It was neat to see a plan failing because it was poorly made and getting called out for it, first time I see this in a game.
Genuinely one of my favorite Yakuza games. It may have some wacky ass twists people clown on but goddamn it I kinda love it for that
It's nice, whatever, but the story is a mess. I think that Y3 is overhated, and this game is actually the worst one that I played (I played 0-4).
PS. Akiyama is cool.
PS. Akiyama is cool.
Everything about this game is amazing... The music, the character, the storyline, the combat, the leveling system. It's my second favorite Yakuza game and I recommend it very much