This review contains spoilers
I want to begin this review stating that I always enjoy hearing the feedback and opinions of others before tackling a game. The medium of gaming is so varied and tactilely-dependent that for many games no two playthroughs are going to be the same game even if said game is linear in structure. Some people go through 2D Mario games in a brisk or casual manner going through levels in a jovial trot, while others may partake in the same game speeding through levels and performing riskier movements in the name of testing one's own skill. Games are so much fun to talk about and they're even more fun when realizing my own weaknesses and limitations with regards to the medium that I best engage in. It's incredibly hard for me to not like or extend an olive branch to games even when I know there's troubles, I often feel as though I go too easy on my critiques and final thoughts on a work. I'm also an incredibly patient man; in my Xenoblade 2 review if I didn't mentally slap myself after several hours of grinding for the last and rarest blade I had yet to roll, I'm certain I would have spent however long it would have needed to take to get that blade, even if I never used them. I've never been prescribed any form of OCD or adjacent disorder, nor have I ever gone to a psychiatrist or physician for the purpose of diagnosing or ascribing any kind of label to my patterns of game 'completion' or 'progression', whether it be 100& completion or some predetermined, arbitrary goal (e.g. 'I want to get all Blades in XB2', or commonly in Playstation games '50% trophy sounds good on a first run'). Often times, even when I know that my curiousities in filling out an imaginary checklist of progression might bring more friction into a playthrough I do usually find some enjoyment in the long run of having explored some corner of a game that I otherwise might have just skipped over had I considered a more casual trimming of the game. I don't care about Agate nor her obnoxious Blade Quest in XB2 but damn if it doesnt feel good to say that I know it doesn't feel good. Some people might disagree and enjoy the worldbuilding of this minor race and characterization of Agate, some might not have even cared to do the Blade Quest in the first place because of how off the beaten path it is. This depth in which Xenoblade and many similar large games have instilled into their worlds makes for an interesting case study of the ways certain gamers might tackle 'break time' in open world or 'less-than-linear' games. Now, Yakuza. Yakuza is a lot like Xenoblade.
...
Well, not really, however I do always wonder how people tackle the games within the Yakuza/RGG series with regards to its charcuterie board of minigames, sidestories, character completion and distractions. Not to mention each game's usual 'unique' side game such as the Kiryu real estate in Y0, Majima Construction in YK2, and the entire school subsection in Lost Judgment. Each game usually does an excellent job at drawing me in to suck out a several 10s of hours of playtime to see what the game has to offer, and I'm typically satisfied with each game, even with the varying degrees of quality some minigames might have. The first exception to this format was Yakuza 3, a game in which I didn't spend but so long in as much of the side minigames didn't entice me as they usually did, and the side content such as the Hostess minigame was a lot less involved as later iterations would make it. For the most part, I spent my time in Yakuza 3 mostly doing the main story and a small chunk of the side stories, and most of the revelations. This makes it one of the shorter games I've spent my time with, but I thoroughly enjoyed my first run through 3, seeing the new locales in Okinawa and getting to know its residents. One of the games' biggest detractions was honestly whenever Kiryu had to be dragged back to Kamurocho. I'm not starting to dislike Kamurocho, and in 3 much of the story content that goes on there is pretty good, and being accompanied by Rikiya once was a fun time, leading to some fun sidestories. However, I couldn't help but feel as though my interest in the city was waning, and me knowing of other locations in later games was starting to creep in. Okinawa served as a good vacation from the usual layouts and locales of the city, and I appreciate 3 for its reprieve from the usual Yakuza vibes.
Yakuza 4 doesn't help.
Part 1: Akiyama
Perhaps the best section of the entire playthrough, and I do appreciate his segment a lot in hindsight. At the time that I was playing as him, however, at the time that I was going through his story I was just going through the motions. I wasn't sure just how the story was going so I took much of it at face value and -knowing that there was certain plot elements people didn't sit right with- I was kind of trying too hard to look for any detail that seemed off or sloppy. But thankfully, Akiyama's section is relatively tame and manages to feel like an actual yakuza game. His moveset of kicks is also the best in the game, as it becomes incredibly satisfying to loop enemies and bosses into a flurry of kicks and sweeps that do a fair amount of damage. This was also where I probably spent most of my overall playtime, as I usually spend the majority of 'hobby' time at the start of a playthrough. Did most of my baseball, bowling, karaoke and whatnot as Akiyama. There's honestly not too much to say with Akiyama as his chapter progresses pretty normally, my only real complaint being that it drags you into doing the hostess minigame and that hasn't really improved in any significant way from Yakuza 3 so that's a bit boring. Otherwise a really solid addition and hopefully a good sign for things to come, right? (3/4)
Part 2: Saejima
Chapter 1
The nightmare of this game begins almost immediately, as the second part opens on a series of cutscenes, including one of our main conflicts in the grand scheme of Yakuza 4- the murder of 18 yakuza inside a Ramen joint 25 years ago at the hands of Saejima. Unknowingly this seems like no issue, but we'll come to understand why I bring this up later. Then, once the cutscenes end, we open up on a prison segment with Saejima. This isn't the best first impression as aside from a few fights this is primarily just a fetch-quest within the courtyard and a few cutscenes before the typical Yakuza combat set-piece. Before that, I will say Yamazaki's reappearance from the ending of 3 is very funny to say the least, but its a neat enough tie-in from that game that I don't have any problems with it immediately. The prison combat section would be the perfect time for Saejima to truly show his abilities as a fighter. Unfortunate for Saejima, he has perhaps the worst playstyle thus far in the series. It really takes a while for him to feel good at all, and his reliance on heavy hits in a game with incredibly wonky ai guarding, heat gauge loss and dodging. Yakuza 3 had its issues in some fights, although certain other aspects to Kiryu's fighting style kinda balanced things out in my mind, such as his upgraded combo finishers, his grabs and his full list of revelations. With this game however, many of its combat issues really begin to shine through with this stage and in particular its main fight with Saito, the prison warden. He’s possibly the worst fight in the game (and honestly series) just in terms of the disadvantage you’re at by this point in the game. A lack of any real prep time, no saving graces around the arena, a boss with a weapon that proves stun too often, and a clunky player character all-around make this a horrible experience, for sure. The only main benefit here is that the arena is spacious enough that if you grabbed that charging tackle moving you have a better time whittling down his hp in a manner he doesn’t avoid. (0)
Chapter 2
Literally one fight and a cutscene. Also one of the grossest cutscenes in the series. (0)
Chapter 3
Probably the one reprieve Saejima ever gets in the game, as it feels like you get to play Yakuza. Unfortunately, as I had spent much of my time goofing around as Akiyama I figured I’d spend chapter 3 mostly tackling the rest of the story. What I didn’t know was after a certain point the games railroads you not toward a certain objective per se, but definitely away from certain other areas I wish I could back up. After progressing far enough into the chapter, you can’t get back to the sewers to upgrade Saejima’s skills despite probably needing to head out to craft a better pickaxe (I swear this was immediately after I left the sewers in the first place). Then the game has you go and seek out the florist, leading to mostly wandering around until you find Purgatory, and do the typical purgatory arena fight.
Also fuck that cop chase minigame (0).
Chapter 4
As if it couldn’t get any worse the big man has a stealth segment as well, threatening you with game over if a cop catches you. Also you get one last interrupti- I mean side quest at the most inopportune time as the entirety of Kamurocho is crawling with cops that can allegedly, immediately, end your game. I don’t really care about the plot summary anymore. (0)
Part 3: Tanimura
Chapter 1
Tanimura is a middling at best, scum of the earth at worst, crooked protagonist. This is the only chance in the series he gets to strut his stuff and I’m incredibly glad it is. His main characterization is gambling, the most tired gimmick in the series. He gambles while he’s supposed to be on duty, and one of the first scenes we see of him is turning a blind eye to human trafficking for cash. Much of the first part just feels like complete plot dump and by this point the fatigue has set in.
It’s very hard for me to start tolerating a game after a really rough segment, and I tend to parallel my thoughts on a terrible game as similar to drowning. It doesn’t really matter whether I survive or not, how terrible the feeling of struggling really poisons my vibe for the following section so if it doesn’t rescue me, it only feels worse the longer I can’t gasp a pocket of air. Tanimura sure isn’t that breath of fresh air. These long ass plot dumps and uninteresting character sections, the police scanner being…something.
Even the docks section doesn’t really pique any interest. I don’t know who this cop is, and by most of my understanding he seems like an average joe that possibly fights better than most (unfortunately I also don’t like this fighting style but let’s say he fights well). Here he goes, barreling through this Takeshi’s castle ass dungeon at the docks, with oil barrel action and hordes of brutal yakuza abound. I don’t know who Tanimura is! How can he do all these things! I don’t care how cool your OC is! At least Saejima is shown to have the guts and physique that we can believe he’d be able to take out waves of enemies, and Akiyama (along with Hana, possibly) seem to have better street experience in dealing with thugs or rowdy sorts. Tanimura doing all these fancy moves means nothing to me because I know his ass isn’t going anywhere after this game.
Also by the end of this segment we see more plot stuff about our antagonists and whatever, my main point to bring up here is we begin the pattern of just unnecessarily corny, melodramatic and cliched killings/betrayals. Yakuza games are abound with such cliches but I feel as though whenever they partake in such tropes it usually sets well with the narrative in a logical and emotionally satisfying manner, whereas I could see that this game was just gonna keep killing all these plot-central characters they just introduced and I know I’ll never see again. (0)
Chapter 2:
More plot dump. I’ve decided not to delve too deep in the plot because it really isn’t that good. I didn’t care about any of what the game was offering. You get introduced to the teacher for Tanimura, a character named Nair and I knew this girl was trouble from second one. When hanging with a friend I showed him where I was at and he directed me to try one of her sparring sessions. He showed me just how much damage she takes if you try to tackle her the normal way (very tiny chips of health, I barely dented her) and I lost. Then, he showed me that you have to cheese her by parrying her into a corner and not letting her gain any spatial advantage or upper hand. Needless to say, I didn’t want to talk to Nair. More plot dump and running around Kamurocho. Dead dad drama. Missing brother drama. Then a segment chasing/fighting toward the Homeland. (0)
Chapter 3:
Little Asia is kinda neat, but a real pain in the ass to walk through since its camera is constantly up your ass. You go a room. You end the chapter. You learn something. (0)
*I* learned a few chapters back that this game had extraordinarily terrible pacing.
Chapter 4:
You get a call from Kido and head to the docks and engage in a boat chase and…this is hilarious. The one point I’ll give Tanimura is that this got to the point of stupidity where it looped back around into being somewhat enjoyable. This boat chase where you just spam Triangle and fire at your just disgraced rat cop boss. I don’t think he ever got a shot back at me, just spamming the fire button and trailing slowly behind him stuns him hard enough to not ever fire the gun I think he has(?). You have one last boss fight and more betrayal/murder/backstab of the cast ensues.
I was gonna give this chapter a point but then I remembered this was the point of the story in which you learn about rubber bullets. (0)
I’ll give Tanimura this, he gets brownie points for that Russian roulette side story though.
Part 4 Kiryu
Chapter 1:
Fucking JINGU??? (0)
Chapter 2:
Finally you get to play as Kiryu, and you know what. Finally. This chapter only lasts like 5 minutes gameplay wise as, if you step anywhere near Millennium Tower, the cutscene that ends the chapter just starts. But THIS was a breathe of fresh air I needed. (1)
Chapter 3:
The plot shit just gets worse and worse the more you learn about it, so I’ll just focus on what really grinded my gears. You return to Date and Yasuko goes missing, yeah? I swore that this was meaning that she was gone maybe an hour or more, and Date was just waking up after a short but powerful enough dose that she escaped to a certain location. I don’t know if I missed a cutscene or a hint or what but apparently she’s only about 15 feet away and somehow I completely missed going north and triggering this. I spent the better part of 30 minutes just scouring Kamurocho and trying my best to logically determine where she was in this entire city. Fortune tellers were useless, npcs said nothing, most places were closed off anyway due to rain/plot! Hell I even went into theatre square and triggered the gang side quest for kiryu and thought that was a story relevant thing I needed to accomplish beforehand! Nope! She was just right outside my building!…At least the fight with Akiyama and Tanimura was fun. (0)
Chapter 4:
Finally we learn about Kido and his discovery of the 100 billion yen or something, anyway we go to West Park and have our final dungeon encounter, solely as Kiryu. This goes on for a long, long time and at least that means we get to build up Kiryu quite well before the end. Those firearm dudes and the grappling guys fucking suck though, hope nothing like that ever happens again in this game. More killing, betrayal whatever at the top of the tower. (1)
FINALE:
All things considered, the finale of this game was shaping up to be pretty fun. And.. at the start it is! We have our protagonists swag away from a funeral, suited up and looking up to the rooftop of the millennium tower. We cut away to our enemies, already positioned up there and we don’t just rise to meet them- we descent from helicopter to confront them. Akiyama serves as our first fight against Arai and I love this fight. Man does Akiyama just lay a hurt down on this man, he really got the long end of the stick by the end of the game. Next is Saejima versus Kido, a matchup I wasn’t sure I was fond of but then I remembered…I had bought 5 guns for a stupid achievement… and I began wailing on 3/4ths of a single color of his health bar. I don’t know why he’s allowed to recover, only I can do that! But oddly, I took him down with a bit of trouble but nothing rough. Then, Kiryu and Daigo finally settle it… was this fight supposed to be hard? Except actually it was, I was kinda getting my ass kicked here I wasn’t sure what I was doing wrong. But after a bit of attrition, even Daigo the head of the Tojo fell. Lastly… we have Tanimura versus…this old man… and like 18 fucking other dudes.
What the fuck were they thinking.
The reason there’s that red color next to this game review is this stupid ass boss fight. Seriously, how many guys did you think you needed for this one fight? And its main boss is holding a gun, which is certainly always a fun time in yakuza games. I don’t even remember which old dude it is as I’m typing it out, why is this the final boss? Why do I keep fucking dying. I’ll say it here and end it quick like I did this game because I really don’t wanna spend more time talking about this game. The first three fights get the 3 points I arbitrarily made up mid-review, but I thought they served a neat purpose. The fourth point doesn’t go to this final fight (the final score is an 8/20 by this stupid measure I made) and in fact I’m using a lot of willpower to not tank this game further than I already am because I have to say: A finale really makes a game.
Hell, it makes a lot of things in media. A lot of games in my time have usually felt buffed because I thought it ended extremely well, and usually if a game fizzles out toward the climax it doesn’t stick as well after the credits roll. Yakuza 3 does an excellent job at the former. I loved the final fight and the change to the title screen music post-completion, it felt really satisfying to beat it. On the contrast I refused to beat this game. I could not beat this fight, primarily because I had not prepared myself as well as I had hoped and also because quite frankly this fight just sucks. I didn’t think my final trial was going to be 12 obnoxious ass dudes and some dude with a pistol that constantly ran away.
My greatest enjoyment and ultimately the reason I quit trying to fight the boss was the image in my mind that the last moments of Tanimura (a character I don't like but ultimately don't despite for the record) being this absolute pile on of fully armored, combat knife wielding bodyguards beating the absolute living hell out of him.
He has a gun!! Why doesn't he use it???? Like in combat!! Please!!!
...........................................
I enjoy thinking back through games, especially ones i had some trouble with. Not necessarily hated, just games with obvious segments where it felt as though I sunk time for thinking a certain way about an issue or tackling a goal in a wrong way.I love thinking back through and wondering 'what if on a second playthrough long in the future I did X, Y or Z? Yeah that'd certainly help'. The way we go about games and do our runs can shape up to mean a lot by the end of a game. With Yakuza 4 I feel so bad nearing the end because I don't think there's much I'd wanna do to really rectify any hardship I did have with it. I'm not looking forward to any future playthrough or engaging with this game any more than I already have. I had some idea of why this game wasn't nearly as praised as others in the franchise but I wasnt sure to what extent it'd attach to me. By the end of Akiyama's act, I was still fairly optimistic in what the game had to offer. Only to realize that much of the game worth experiencing was fulfilled by that point.
...
Well, not really, however I do always wonder how people tackle the games within the Yakuza/RGG series with regards to its charcuterie board of minigames, sidestories, character completion and distractions. Not to mention each game's usual 'unique' side game such as the Kiryu real estate in Y0, Majima Construction in YK2, and the entire school subsection in Lost Judgment. Each game usually does an excellent job at drawing me in to suck out a several 10s of hours of playtime to see what the game has to offer, and I'm typically satisfied with each game, even with the varying degrees of quality some minigames might have. The first exception to this format was Yakuza 3, a game in which I didn't spend but so long in as much of the side minigames didn't entice me as they usually did, and the side content such as the Hostess minigame was a lot less involved as later iterations would make it. For the most part, I spent my time in Yakuza 3 mostly doing the main story and a small chunk of the side stories, and most of the revelations. This makes it one of the shorter games I've spent my time with, but I thoroughly enjoyed my first run through 3, seeing the new locales in Okinawa and getting to know its residents. One of the games' biggest detractions was honestly whenever Kiryu had to be dragged back to Kamurocho. I'm not starting to dislike Kamurocho, and in 3 much of the story content that goes on there is pretty good, and being accompanied by Rikiya once was a fun time, leading to some fun sidestories. However, I couldn't help but feel as though my interest in the city was waning, and me knowing of other locations in later games was starting to creep in. Okinawa served as a good vacation from the usual layouts and locales of the city, and I appreciate 3 for its reprieve from the usual Yakuza vibes.
Yakuza 4 doesn't help.
Part 1: Akiyama
Perhaps the best section of the entire playthrough, and I do appreciate his segment a lot in hindsight. At the time that I was playing as him, however, at the time that I was going through his story I was just going through the motions. I wasn't sure just how the story was going so I took much of it at face value and -knowing that there was certain plot elements people didn't sit right with- I was kind of trying too hard to look for any detail that seemed off or sloppy. But thankfully, Akiyama's section is relatively tame and manages to feel like an actual yakuza game. His moveset of kicks is also the best in the game, as it becomes incredibly satisfying to loop enemies and bosses into a flurry of kicks and sweeps that do a fair amount of damage. This was also where I probably spent most of my overall playtime, as I usually spend the majority of 'hobby' time at the start of a playthrough. Did most of my baseball, bowling, karaoke and whatnot as Akiyama. There's honestly not too much to say with Akiyama as his chapter progresses pretty normally, my only real complaint being that it drags you into doing the hostess minigame and that hasn't really improved in any significant way from Yakuza 3 so that's a bit boring. Otherwise a really solid addition and hopefully a good sign for things to come, right? (3/4)
Part 2: Saejima
Chapter 1
The nightmare of this game begins almost immediately, as the second part opens on a series of cutscenes, including one of our main conflicts in the grand scheme of Yakuza 4- the murder of 18 yakuza inside a Ramen joint 25 years ago at the hands of Saejima. Unknowingly this seems like no issue, but we'll come to understand why I bring this up later. Then, once the cutscenes end, we open up on a prison segment with Saejima. This isn't the best first impression as aside from a few fights this is primarily just a fetch-quest within the courtyard and a few cutscenes before the typical Yakuza combat set-piece. Before that, I will say Yamazaki's reappearance from the ending of 3 is very funny to say the least, but its a neat enough tie-in from that game that I don't have any problems with it immediately. The prison combat section would be the perfect time for Saejima to truly show his abilities as a fighter. Unfortunate for Saejima, he has perhaps the worst playstyle thus far in the series. It really takes a while for him to feel good at all, and his reliance on heavy hits in a game with incredibly wonky ai guarding, heat gauge loss and dodging. Yakuza 3 had its issues in some fights, although certain other aspects to Kiryu's fighting style kinda balanced things out in my mind, such as his upgraded combo finishers, his grabs and his full list of revelations. With this game however, many of its combat issues really begin to shine through with this stage and in particular its main fight with Saito, the prison warden. He’s possibly the worst fight in the game (and honestly series) just in terms of the disadvantage you’re at by this point in the game. A lack of any real prep time, no saving graces around the arena, a boss with a weapon that proves stun too often, and a clunky player character all-around make this a horrible experience, for sure. The only main benefit here is that the arena is spacious enough that if you grabbed that charging tackle moving you have a better time whittling down his hp in a manner he doesn’t avoid. (0)
Chapter 2
Literally one fight and a cutscene. Also one of the grossest cutscenes in the series. (0)
Chapter 3
Probably the one reprieve Saejima ever gets in the game, as it feels like you get to play Yakuza. Unfortunately, as I had spent much of my time goofing around as Akiyama I figured I’d spend chapter 3 mostly tackling the rest of the story. What I didn’t know was after a certain point the games railroads you not toward a certain objective per se, but definitely away from certain other areas I wish I could back up. After progressing far enough into the chapter, you can’t get back to the sewers to upgrade Saejima’s skills despite probably needing to head out to craft a better pickaxe (I swear this was immediately after I left the sewers in the first place). Then the game has you go and seek out the florist, leading to mostly wandering around until you find Purgatory, and do the typical purgatory arena fight.
Also fuck that cop chase minigame (0).
Chapter 4
As if it couldn’t get any worse the big man has a stealth segment as well, threatening you with game over if a cop catches you. Also you get one last interrupti- I mean side quest at the most inopportune time as the entirety of Kamurocho is crawling with cops that can allegedly, immediately, end your game. I don’t really care about the plot summary anymore. (0)
Part 3: Tanimura
Chapter 1
Tanimura is a middling at best, scum of the earth at worst, crooked protagonist. This is the only chance in the series he gets to strut his stuff and I’m incredibly glad it is. His main characterization is gambling, the most tired gimmick in the series. He gambles while he’s supposed to be on duty, and one of the first scenes we see of him is turning a blind eye to human trafficking for cash. Much of the first part just feels like complete plot dump and by this point the fatigue has set in.
It’s very hard for me to start tolerating a game after a really rough segment, and I tend to parallel my thoughts on a terrible game as similar to drowning. It doesn’t really matter whether I survive or not, how terrible the feeling of struggling really poisons my vibe for the following section so if it doesn’t rescue me, it only feels worse the longer I can’t gasp a pocket of air. Tanimura sure isn’t that breath of fresh air. These long ass plot dumps and uninteresting character sections, the police scanner being…something.
Even the docks section doesn’t really pique any interest. I don’t know who this cop is, and by most of my understanding he seems like an average joe that possibly fights better than most (unfortunately I also don’t like this fighting style but let’s say he fights well). Here he goes, barreling through this Takeshi’s castle ass dungeon at the docks, with oil barrel action and hordes of brutal yakuza abound. I don’t know who Tanimura is! How can he do all these things! I don’t care how cool your OC is! At least Saejima is shown to have the guts and physique that we can believe he’d be able to take out waves of enemies, and Akiyama (along with Hana, possibly) seem to have better street experience in dealing with thugs or rowdy sorts. Tanimura doing all these fancy moves means nothing to me because I know his ass isn’t going anywhere after this game.
Also by the end of this segment we see more plot stuff about our antagonists and whatever, my main point to bring up here is we begin the pattern of just unnecessarily corny, melodramatic and cliched killings/betrayals. Yakuza games are abound with such cliches but I feel as though whenever they partake in such tropes it usually sets well with the narrative in a logical and emotionally satisfying manner, whereas I could see that this game was just gonna keep killing all these plot-central characters they just introduced and I know I’ll never see again. (0)
Chapter 2:
More plot dump. I’ve decided not to delve too deep in the plot because it really isn’t that good. I didn’t care about any of what the game was offering. You get introduced to the teacher for Tanimura, a character named Nair and I knew this girl was trouble from second one. When hanging with a friend I showed him where I was at and he directed me to try one of her sparring sessions. He showed me just how much damage she takes if you try to tackle her the normal way (very tiny chips of health, I barely dented her) and I lost. Then, he showed me that you have to cheese her by parrying her into a corner and not letting her gain any spatial advantage or upper hand. Needless to say, I didn’t want to talk to Nair. More plot dump and running around Kamurocho. Dead dad drama. Missing brother drama. Then a segment chasing/fighting toward the Homeland. (0)
Chapter 3:
Little Asia is kinda neat, but a real pain in the ass to walk through since its camera is constantly up your ass. You go a room. You end the chapter. You learn something. (0)
*I* learned a few chapters back that this game had extraordinarily terrible pacing.
Chapter 4:
You get a call from Kido and head to the docks and engage in a boat chase and…this is hilarious. The one point I’ll give Tanimura is that this got to the point of stupidity where it looped back around into being somewhat enjoyable. This boat chase where you just spam Triangle and fire at your just disgraced rat cop boss. I don’t think he ever got a shot back at me, just spamming the fire button and trailing slowly behind him stuns him hard enough to not ever fire the gun I think he has(?). You have one last boss fight and more betrayal/murder/backstab of the cast ensues.
I was gonna give this chapter a point but then I remembered this was the point of the story in which you learn about rubber bullets. (0)
I’ll give Tanimura this, he gets brownie points for that Russian roulette side story though.
Part 4 Kiryu
Chapter 1:
Fucking JINGU??? (0)
Chapter 2:
Finally you get to play as Kiryu, and you know what. Finally. This chapter only lasts like 5 minutes gameplay wise as, if you step anywhere near Millennium Tower, the cutscene that ends the chapter just starts. But THIS was a breathe of fresh air I needed. (1)
Chapter 3:
The plot shit just gets worse and worse the more you learn about it, so I’ll just focus on what really grinded my gears. You return to Date and Yasuko goes missing, yeah? I swore that this was meaning that she was gone maybe an hour or more, and Date was just waking up after a short but powerful enough dose that she escaped to a certain location. I don’t know if I missed a cutscene or a hint or what but apparently she’s only about 15 feet away and somehow I completely missed going north and triggering this. I spent the better part of 30 minutes just scouring Kamurocho and trying my best to logically determine where she was in this entire city. Fortune tellers were useless, npcs said nothing, most places were closed off anyway due to rain/plot! Hell I even went into theatre square and triggered the gang side quest for kiryu and thought that was a story relevant thing I needed to accomplish beforehand! Nope! She was just right outside my building!…At least the fight with Akiyama and Tanimura was fun. (0)
Chapter 4:
Finally we learn about Kido and his discovery of the 100 billion yen or something, anyway we go to West Park and have our final dungeon encounter, solely as Kiryu. This goes on for a long, long time and at least that means we get to build up Kiryu quite well before the end. Those firearm dudes and the grappling guys fucking suck though, hope nothing like that ever happens again in this game. More killing, betrayal whatever at the top of the tower. (1)
FINALE:
All things considered, the finale of this game was shaping up to be pretty fun. And.. at the start it is! We have our protagonists swag away from a funeral, suited up and looking up to the rooftop of the millennium tower. We cut away to our enemies, already positioned up there and we don’t just rise to meet them- we descent from helicopter to confront them. Akiyama serves as our first fight against Arai and I love this fight. Man does Akiyama just lay a hurt down on this man, he really got the long end of the stick by the end of the game. Next is Saejima versus Kido, a matchup I wasn’t sure I was fond of but then I remembered…I had bought 5 guns for a stupid achievement… and I began wailing on 3/4ths of a single color of his health bar. I don’t know why he’s allowed to recover, only I can do that! But oddly, I took him down with a bit of trouble but nothing rough. Then, Kiryu and Daigo finally settle it… was this fight supposed to be hard? Except actually it was, I was kinda getting my ass kicked here I wasn’t sure what I was doing wrong. But after a bit of attrition, even Daigo the head of the Tojo fell. Lastly… we have Tanimura versus…this old man… and like 18 fucking other dudes.
What the fuck were they thinking.
The reason there’s that red color next to this game review is this stupid ass boss fight. Seriously, how many guys did you think you needed for this one fight? And its main boss is holding a gun, which is certainly always a fun time in yakuza games. I don’t even remember which old dude it is as I’m typing it out, why is this the final boss? Why do I keep fucking dying. I’ll say it here and end it quick like I did this game because I really don’t wanna spend more time talking about this game. The first three fights get the 3 points I arbitrarily made up mid-review, but I thought they served a neat purpose. The fourth point doesn’t go to this final fight (the final score is an 8/20 by this stupid measure I made) and in fact I’m using a lot of willpower to not tank this game further than I already am because I have to say: A finale really makes a game.
Hell, it makes a lot of things in media. A lot of games in my time have usually felt buffed because I thought it ended extremely well, and usually if a game fizzles out toward the climax it doesn’t stick as well after the credits roll. Yakuza 3 does an excellent job at the former. I loved the final fight and the change to the title screen music post-completion, it felt really satisfying to beat it. On the contrast I refused to beat this game. I could not beat this fight, primarily because I had not prepared myself as well as I had hoped and also because quite frankly this fight just sucks. I didn’t think my final trial was going to be 12 obnoxious ass dudes and some dude with a pistol that constantly ran away.
My greatest enjoyment and ultimately the reason I quit trying to fight the boss was the image in my mind that the last moments of Tanimura (a character I don't like but ultimately don't despite for the record) being this absolute pile on of fully armored, combat knife wielding bodyguards beating the absolute living hell out of him.
He has a gun!! Why doesn't he use it???? Like in combat!! Please!!!
...........................................
I enjoy thinking back through games, especially ones i had some trouble with. Not necessarily hated, just games with obvious segments where it felt as though I sunk time for thinking a certain way about an issue or tackling a goal in a wrong way.I love thinking back through and wondering 'what if on a second playthrough long in the future I did X, Y or Z? Yeah that'd certainly help'. The way we go about games and do our runs can shape up to mean a lot by the end of a game. With Yakuza 4 I feel so bad nearing the end because I don't think there's much I'd wanna do to really rectify any hardship I did have with it. I'm not looking forward to any future playthrough or engaging with this game any more than I already have. I had some idea of why this game wasn't nearly as praised as others in the franchise but I wasnt sure to what extent it'd attach to me. By the end of Akiyama's act, I was still fairly optimistic in what the game had to offer. Only to realize that much of the game worth experiencing was fulfilled by that point.
Zapken
1 year ago