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