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.