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.