This review contains spoilers
7.5 - used to be 6.5
I think with Gaiden releasing and it making up for a lot of lost time, I've eased up on Yakuza 6. It being Kiryu's ending was very unsatisfying for me. It just felt like the whole story was pointing in a new direction for Kiryu, showing him glimpses of his past through the new characters he meets in pursuit of Haruto's father, only to end up going in circles with Kiryu seemingly not learning a lesson from the events that transpired. While I do still feel like it sets up great pieces to the plot, only to stumble by the end, that shouldn't diminish from its great moments.
It's a much sleepier, calmer finale than one would expect which allows you to appreciate its beauty. At least, graphically. This game is 7 years old and it still looks absolutely fantastic, I wish it was 60 FPS on PS5 but I get why they didn't port it. The aforementioned glimpses at Kiryu's past make for some all-timer Yakuza scenes, Kiryu spectating these events adds depth to those scenes in the past as Kiryu is all too familiar with them. New characters like Someya, Nagumo, and Kiyomi show complex new spins on usual RGG characters, and, even if it doesn't mean much to western audiences, the secret of Onomichi's political ramifications intrigue me. The music is also fantastic, this game might have my favorite Yakuza soundtrack, only tied by 2 and Kurohyou.
There are still aspects of the game that bug me. The ending is not thematically satisfying, it feels like the first 3/4s of the game were going steady and they had to rush the last fourth by shoving everything together awkwardly. The new characters reflecting Kiryu's past felt like Kiryu's last lesson, showing him what he did wrong (even though I think 5 did a better job.) So to forgo all of that by the end and just have him run away yet again makes it feel like he learned nothing and just went back to default Kiryu, great fucking finale. Also the pacing just gets thrown out the window, there's no level leading up to the final battle. Some could argue the Millenium Tower is the level leading up to it but that just leads up to Someya's last fight, there's a long battle that's hinted at before you get to the funeral wharf but it just felt like a missing piece. One of Sugai's lines during the finale ("You..! And the sixth chairman...! Always looking down on me!") bothers me because it feels like it should have some weight but Sugai is a new character, it means nothing. Sure, it implies a lot but it ends up just being a weightless line. The final boss is good enough, his whole dad thing parallels a lot of the series' themes of family, I wish it was something new for Kiryu's last hurrah (at the time.)
Despite my gripes with it, I find myself being more positive about 6 nowadays. Still nowhere near my favorites, but it's good.
I think with Gaiden releasing and it making up for a lot of lost time, I've eased up on Yakuza 6. It being Kiryu's ending was very unsatisfying for me. It just felt like the whole story was pointing in a new direction for Kiryu, showing him glimpses of his past through the new characters he meets in pursuit of Haruto's father, only to end up going in circles with Kiryu seemingly not learning a lesson from the events that transpired. While I do still feel like it sets up great pieces to the plot, only to stumble by the end, that shouldn't diminish from its great moments.
It's a much sleepier, calmer finale than one would expect which allows you to appreciate its beauty. At least, graphically. This game is 7 years old and it still looks absolutely fantastic, I wish it was 60 FPS on PS5 but I get why they didn't port it. The aforementioned glimpses at Kiryu's past make for some all-timer Yakuza scenes, Kiryu spectating these events adds depth to those scenes in the past as Kiryu is all too familiar with them. New characters like Someya, Nagumo, and Kiyomi show complex new spins on usual RGG characters, and, even if it doesn't mean much to western audiences, the secret of Onomichi's political ramifications intrigue me. The music is also fantastic, this game might have my favorite Yakuza soundtrack, only tied by 2 and Kurohyou.
There are still aspects of the game that bug me. The ending is not thematically satisfying, it feels like the first 3/4s of the game were going steady and they had to rush the last fourth by shoving everything together awkwardly. The new characters reflecting Kiryu's past felt like Kiryu's last lesson, showing him what he did wrong (even though I think 5 did a better job.) So to forgo all of that by the end and just have him run away yet again makes it feel like he learned nothing and just went back to default Kiryu, great fucking finale. Also the pacing just gets thrown out the window, there's no level leading up to the final battle. Some could argue the Millenium Tower is the level leading up to it but that just leads up to Someya's last fight, there's a long battle that's hinted at before you get to the funeral wharf but it just felt like a missing piece. One of Sugai's lines during the finale ("You..! And the sixth chairman...! Always looking down on me!") bothers me because it feels like it should have some weight but Sugai is a new character, it means nothing. Sure, it implies a lot but it ends up just being a weightless line. The final boss is good enough, his whole dad thing parallels a lot of the series' themes of family, I wish it was something new for Kiryu's last hurrah (at the time.)
Despite my gripes with it, I find myself being more positive about 6 nowadays. Still nowhere near my favorites, but it's good.