This review contains spoilers
Note: Just like with Y3 Remastered, I decided to install a few mods, though it mainly focused on making the game look a little nicer and have it more closely resemble how it appeared on the PS3. This includes uncensoring the game's songs, restoring Tanimura's original actor into the game, restoring the Quickstep to how it was originally, and using a 4K font. These hopefully shouldn't affect my opinion of the game too much though since I tried to keep it as close to vanilla as possible.
- First of all, I was most curious about with this game was how I thought about the story. I already heard from quite a people about how much of a mess the story was, especially when it came to its twists (I already heard more than enough jokes when it came to the "Rubber Bullets" twist even before playing the game and knowing the full context), so I was curious as to how I felt about it. Even though I had some issues with the story, mainly how Yasuko/Lily felt more like a plot device to get all the main leads together rather than a truly fleshed out character, and the rubber bullets twist being just as stupid as I was expecting to the point where I was ironically cheering for it whenever it was brought up. But other than those main two things, I really didn't have many issues. The story kept at a good pace unlike Yakuza 1 and I thought it was cool seeing different events happen through the lens of the different playble characters, and seeing how it all ties in the end. I do wish we got to spend more time with the main characters as a team, since Kiryu's sidequests in the finale does showcase them working together, and it was really cool to see how their personalities played off with one another, it's not that big of a deal, but I really wished we got more of that instead of them going solo in their own stories. Overall, while it is a bit of a messy story, it is FAR from the worse story I've seen in this series as well as other games I've played.
- I think the choice of expanding Kamurocho into having underground and rooftop sections, while interesting and cool to see, didn't feel like it was used to its fullest. For the story alone, I felt it was only primarily used in Saejima and Tanimura's section of the story and wasn't used much with Akiyama or Kiryu's part of the story. It does get used more in substory stuff, but it was never to the point where I fell in love with it. It's still a cool idea, but compared to Okinawa from the last game and how unique it was to Kamurocho, it is a bit of a downgrade.
- The combat, which I'm happy to report on, is probably one of the most unique and memorable aspects of the game. To make things easier on myself, I'm gonna rank the fighters and describe what I liked about each of them.
1. Tanimura - Easily one of the most creative fighting styles I've seen in this series so far. His parrying system and the amount of different heat actions you can do after any of his moves make him such a joy to play as no matter what. Even during the final boss where I've heard so many say is the low point of the finale, I really didn't have much problem with using Tanimura and was able to get through it just fine (Though it was a bit annoying at times)
2. Kiryu - Kiryu really didn't change all that much going from Y3 to 4, but he does feel more refined in some of his tools, and I was genuinely surprised that unlike other games, Kiryu actually kept some of the skills he had from the last game, making him feel like a New Game+ version of K3 Kiryu without being too overpowered. Overall, a really cool version of the character.
3. Saejima - While his style of big slow and strong attacks doesn't mesh 100% of the time with the stuff he goes through (Mainly his fights with Saito which I felt had a really sudden difficulty spike), I still thought his style was to go through. His moves are satisfying when pulled off and seeing some of the things he did that would transfer over to Dragon Engine Kiryu (Mainly the charge moves and some heat actions) was pretty cool to witness. Still preferred Kiryu and Tanimura, but I enjoyed playing as Saejima.
4. Akiyama - He never felt bad to play, but it never felt like I got enough time to really explore him in depth. He's only around for the beginning of the game, and the time you last play him up until the finale is such a long wait, that I don't really get a chance to truly explore his potential. He's still a fine character to play as, and I do like how flashy yet smooth he plays just like how he is portrayed, but I just wished he had a bit more screentime with combat.
- I was pretty surprised in how this game handles its sidequests. Not only were the sidequests roughly the same amount as Y3, but divided into the four main characters to where each of them only get a pretty small amount of them compared to Kiryu in previous games, but the tones in them were a bit different than before. The substories in 4 never felt nearly as lighthearted or silly as previous games (Though some still retained that) and many of them either had surprisingly big connections to the story, had arcs that spanned over many substories with an end, or provide a surprisingly serious and impactful tone that made me a bit emotional at times (Mainly White Lies in Kiryu's substories). idk if I would call these the best/my favorite substories in the series, but they are probably some of the most unique and memorable ones so far.
-The graphics, while not being too different from Y3, are still nice and show some improvements from that game, and the soundtrack is still amazing as ever. I like how each of the main characters got a different set of songs for their situations, and it made them that more unique from each other. My favorite songs in this game to me is the main theme, For Faith, along with the rendition of Recieve You that plays in the credits.
Overall, while the somewhat messy story, lack of impact of Kamurocho's new areas, and slightly inconsistent difficulty does bring it down to being my least favorite in the series so far, I still think it's a pretty great game. It does show progress and change in the series with it introducing multiple playable characters and tying their stories together, and it brings in more worldbuilding to the Yakuza series for both new and existing characters, which is always nice to see. It's now gotten me more curious as to how Yakuza 5 will expand and possibly fix some of the issues I have with 4, but so, I'm still glad I got to give this a shot.
- First of all, I was most curious about with this game was how I thought about the story. I already heard from quite a people about how much of a mess the story was, especially when it came to its twists (I already heard more than enough jokes when it came to the "Rubber Bullets" twist even before playing the game and knowing the full context), so I was curious as to how I felt about it. Even though I had some issues with the story, mainly how Yasuko/Lily felt more like a plot device to get all the main leads together rather than a truly fleshed out character, and the rubber bullets twist being just as stupid as I was expecting to the point where I was ironically cheering for it whenever it was brought up. But other than those main two things, I really didn't have many issues. The story kept at a good pace unlike Yakuza 1 and I thought it was cool seeing different events happen through the lens of the different playble characters, and seeing how it all ties in the end. I do wish we got to spend more time with the main characters as a team, since Kiryu's sidequests in the finale does showcase them working together, and it was really cool to see how their personalities played off with one another, it's not that big of a deal, but I really wished we got more of that instead of them going solo in their own stories. Overall, while it is a bit of a messy story, it is FAR from the worse story I've seen in this series as well as other games I've played.
- I think the choice of expanding Kamurocho into having underground and rooftop sections, while interesting and cool to see, didn't feel like it was used to its fullest. For the story alone, I felt it was only primarily used in Saejima and Tanimura's section of the story and wasn't used much with Akiyama or Kiryu's part of the story. It does get used more in substory stuff, but it was never to the point where I fell in love with it. It's still a cool idea, but compared to Okinawa from the last game and how unique it was to Kamurocho, it is a bit of a downgrade.
- The combat, which I'm happy to report on, is probably one of the most unique and memorable aspects of the game. To make things easier on myself, I'm gonna rank the fighters and describe what I liked about each of them.
1. Tanimura - Easily one of the most creative fighting styles I've seen in this series so far. His parrying system and the amount of different heat actions you can do after any of his moves make him such a joy to play as no matter what. Even during the final boss where I've heard so many say is the low point of the finale, I really didn't have much problem with using Tanimura and was able to get through it just fine (Though it was a bit annoying at times)
2. Kiryu - Kiryu really didn't change all that much going from Y3 to 4, but he does feel more refined in some of his tools, and I was genuinely surprised that unlike other games, Kiryu actually kept some of the skills he had from the last game, making him feel like a New Game+ version of K3 Kiryu without being too overpowered. Overall, a really cool version of the character.
3. Saejima - While his style of big slow and strong attacks doesn't mesh 100% of the time with the stuff he goes through (Mainly his fights with Saito which I felt had a really sudden difficulty spike), I still thought his style was to go through. His moves are satisfying when pulled off and seeing some of the things he did that would transfer over to Dragon Engine Kiryu (Mainly the charge moves and some heat actions) was pretty cool to witness. Still preferred Kiryu and Tanimura, but I enjoyed playing as Saejima.
4. Akiyama - He never felt bad to play, but it never felt like I got enough time to really explore him in depth. He's only around for the beginning of the game, and the time you last play him up until the finale is such a long wait, that I don't really get a chance to truly explore his potential. He's still a fine character to play as, and I do like how flashy yet smooth he plays just like how he is portrayed, but I just wished he had a bit more screentime with combat.
- I was pretty surprised in how this game handles its sidequests. Not only were the sidequests roughly the same amount as Y3, but divided into the four main characters to where each of them only get a pretty small amount of them compared to Kiryu in previous games, but the tones in them were a bit different than before. The substories in 4 never felt nearly as lighthearted or silly as previous games (Though some still retained that) and many of them either had surprisingly big connections to the story, had arcs that spanned over many substories with an end, or provide a surprisingly serious and impactful tone that made me a bit emotional at times (Mainly White Lies in Kiryu's substories). idk if I would call these the best/my favorite substories in the series, but they are probably some of the most unique and memorable ones so far.
-The graphics, while not being too different from Y3, are still nice and show some improvements from that game, and the soundtrack is still amazing as ever. I like how each of the main characters got a different set of songs for their situations, and it made them that more unique from each other. My favorite songs in this game to me is the main theme, For Faith, along with the rendition of Recieve You that plays in the credits.
Overall, while the somewhat messy story, lack of impact of Kamurocho's new areas, and slightly inconsistent difficulty does bring it down to being my least favorite in the series so far, I still think it's a pretty great game. It does show progress and change in the series with it introducing multiple playable characters and tying their stories together, and it brings in more worldbuilding to the Yakuza series for both new and existing characters, which is always nice to see. It's now gotten me more curious as to how Yakuza 5 will expand and possibly fix some of the issues I have with 4, but so, I'm still glad I got to give this a shot.