Yakuza 4 shakes things up a bit, with the story now split into four parts (plus a finale) with each one having the player take up the role of one of the four protagonists - Shun Akiyama, Taiga Saejima, Masayoshi Tanimura and the ever iconic Kazuma Kiryu.
While this change was welcomed and it helped to flesh out a more 'expansive' feeling story with each of these characters involved in the over arching plot and having that needed development in said plot to make that conclusion worthwhile, it felt way too short. Each part needed some more room, some more time for these characters to be properly fleshed out - everytime it felt like we were getting somewhere it kinda just rushed to the finish for that person.
I'm also very glad I played Yakuza 0 as my first 'entry' to the series, with this one primarily focusing on the events preceeding / taking place during 0.
The gameplay is pretty much as you expect from Yakuza, heavy on cinematics and cutscenes - giving that absurd 'soap opera' plot and then the beat-em-up/brawler combat inbetween (that is, if you're not spending all of your time just focused on playing mahjong and the myriad of minigames the series has to offer). I did appreciate that each of the characters has their own fighting styles, though they're essentially just the different styles Kiryu was able to do in 0/1/2 (But it at least made each one feel individual).
While this change was welcomed and it helped to flesh out a more 'expansive' feeling story with each of these characters involved in the over arching plot and having that needed development in said plot to make that conclusion worthwhile, it felt way too short. Each part needed some more room, some more time for these characters to be properly fleshed out - everytime it felt like we were getting somewhere it kinda just rushed to the finish for that person.
I'm also very glad I played Yakuza 0 as my first 'entry' to the series, with this one primarily focusing on the events preceeding / taking place during 0.
The gameplay is pretty much as you expect from Yakuza, heavy on cinematics and cutscenes - giving that absurd 'soap opera' plot and then the beat-em-up/brawler combat inbetween (that is, if you're not spending all of your time just focused on playing mahjong and the myriad of minigames the series has to offer). I did appreciate that each of the characters has their own fighting styles, though they're essentially just the different styles Kiryu was able to do in 0/1/2 (But it at least made each one feel individual).