after the bloated, meandering, and oftentimes emotionally farcical Yakuza 5, which was oftentimes deemed to me as "the best one," i did not have the highest expectations for Yakuza 6, oftentimes deemed to me as "the worst one." Yakuza 6 is the best one.
doing exactly what i needed it to do after Yakuza 5's scale muddled it down in underdeveloped characters and asinine hunting minigames, Yakuza 6 brings the story to the complete opposite of its predecessor primarily focusing only on one small group of characters primarily set in a single town that is even smaller than Kamurocho. the miniscule setting lends itself significantly better to the emotionally driven story Yakuza has always tried to tell and only ocassionally succeeded in. the equally small cast of characters also helped in making me give a shit about any of them, and while some were not as interesting as they maybe should have been (yuta was definitely a cool guy and carried a lot of thematic weight on his shoulders, but i didn't like him by the end AS MUCH as i probably was meant to) others can steal the show and keep me enamored with every scene theyre in.
Kiryu is probably the most interesting here as he has ever been, with his history in the Tojo finally actually taking an emotional toll on him and others around him in a way that couldn't be fixed by punching someone on the millenium tower. Joon-gi Han, Big Lo, Heizo Iwami, and Someya all represent the greater theme of lineage and the relationship between parent and child in different ways (Joon-gi's probably the most different, being childless) that got me to care about them in ways that admittedly only Yakuza can really get me to care about their antagonists. the Hirose family left a little something to be desired i'll admit but Toru Hirose has to be one of the best characters this studio has produced, and Takeshi Kitano turned out to be a perfect fit for him. you just can't beat takeshi
that theme of lineage is also notable for letting this finale (lol) to kiryu's story really hit, as not only does it hit on the notes of what he chooses to leave to the future but also goes further back, paralleling the (weakly portrayed) themes of the very first game and really bringing his story full circle. there are too many moments in Onomichi that mirror Kiryu's own trauma to count, but they all feel appropriate in this new context and know just when to play their hand and cash in on that emotional heft. the end of chapter 12 fucked me up in a way i didn't think pre-ichiban yakuza could.
theres definitely some shit wrong with this game, i like the dragon engine combat more than most but group encounters can get tiring, especially when each one starts with throwing a guy to kill half the mooks and the rest of the fight turns into balancing your distance between all the fat guys that don't die instantly so you don't get stunlock combo'd by their drop kicks. the final boss of Yakuza 5 rightfully gets shit for being so hilariously underdeveloped narratively, but the final boss of this game honestly isn't so much more interesting even if he is more thematically relevant to the story. that scene where they toss the baby like a football really didnt need to happen
overall, though, Yakuza 6 is a genuinely powerful story that none of the games that came before could really hope to compare to. with such high emotional stakes and the protagonist finally getting to be a character (which he also was in 5, granted) Yakuza 6 serves as a perfect end (lol) for this story and fittingly is the perfect capstone to pass the reigns of this legacy franchise onto new characters and much, much greater heights.
they should make the next one turn based
doing exactly what i needed it to do after Yakuza 5's scale muddled it down in underdeveloped characters and asinine hunting minigames, Yakuza 6 brings the story to the complete opposite of its predecessor primarily focusing only on one small group of characters primarily set in a single town that is even smaller than Kamurocho. the miniscule setting lends itself significantly better to the emotionally driven story Yakuza has always tried to tell and only ocassionally succeeded in. the equally small cast of characters also helped in making me give a shit about any of them, and while some were not as interesting as they maybe should have been (yuta was definitely a cool guy and carried a lot of thematic weight on his shoulders, but i didn't like him by the end AS MUCH as i probably was meant to) others can steal the show and keep me enamored with every scene theyre in.
Kiryu is probably the most interesting here as he has ever been, with his history in the Tojo finally actually taking an emotional toll on him and others around him in a way that couldn't be fixed by punching someone on the millenium tower. Joon-gi Han, Big Lo, Heizo Iwami, and Someya all represent the greater theme of lineage and the relationship between parent and child in different ways (Joon-gi's probably the most different, being childless) that got me to care about them in ways that admittedly only Yakuza can really get me to care about their antagonists. the Hirose family left a little something to be desired i'll admit but Toru Hirose has to be one of the best characters this studio has produced, and Takeshi Kitano turned out to be a perfect fit for him. you just can't beat takeshi
that theme of lineage is also notable for letting this finale (lol) to kiryu's story really hit, as not only does it hit on the notes of what he chooses to leave to the future but also goes further back, paralleling the (weakly portrayed) themes of the very first game and really bringing his story full circle. there are too many moments in Onomichi that mirror Kiryu's own trauma to count, but they all feel appropriate in this new context and know just when to play their hand and cash in on that emotional heft. the end of chapter 12 fucked me up in a way i didn't think pre-ichiban yakuza could.
theres definitely some shit wrong with this game, i like the dragon engine combat more than most but group encounters can get tiring, especially when each one starts with throwing a guy to kill half the mooks and the rest of the fight turns into balancing your distance between all the fat guys that don't die instantly so you don't get stunlock combo'd by their drop kicks. the final boss of Yakuza 5 rightfully gets shit for being so hilariously underdeveloped narratively, but the final boss of this game honestly isn't so much more interesting even if he is more thematically relevant to the story. that scene where they toss the baby like a football really didnt need to happen
overall, though, Yakuza 6 is a genuinely powerful story that none of the games that came before could really hope to compare to. with such high emotional stakes and the protagonist finally getting to be a character (which he also was in 5, granted) Yakuza 6 serves as a perfect end (lol) for this story and fittingly is the perfect capstone to pass the reigns of this legacy franchise onto new characters and much, much greater heights.
they should make the next one turn based