Releasing exclusively on PS4, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life marks the final chapter for series
protagonist Kiryu Kazuma, an ex-Yakuza chairman who keeps getting pulled back into the criminal
underworld of Tokyo, no matter how much he struggles to break free.
Despite this past, he's a kind soul with a heart of gold that would do anything to keep
harm from coming to those he loves, and impacts the lives of those he meets in a positive
way...even if sometimes it's begrudgingly so.
Coming off the heels of last year's Yakuza 0, a prequel to the series, and Yakuza Kiwami,
a remake of the first game, it's odd timing for us outside Japan to be receiving a game
that takes place over a decade after Kiwami.
Series veterans have undoubtedly been awaiting 6 with an intense fervor, while those who
jumped on board with 0 and Kiwami are probably trying to decide if they should play 2 through
5 first, or if it's fine to jump straight to 6 and catch up on the rest later.
Narratively speaking, the opening hours of 6 build heavily off of the ending of Yakuza
5.
The game does well enough of catching you up on where it left things for the main cast
(there are also text catch-ups on the main menu that give you a brief rundown of entries
1 through 5), but be warned that if you're coming in fresh, you are going to be seeing
a lot of characters that you don't know.
Many of them soon fade into the background to let the narrative focus on Kiryu and a
new supporting cast, however, with appearances from series mainstays sprinkled in here and
there, which makes 6 a surprisingly welcoming entry for those not already intimately acquainted.
The basic gist is that Kiryu's ward, Haruka, had a child and lies comatose following a
car accident during his most recent time behind bars.
This is the catalyst for him setting out to look after the baby while trying to find out
who the father is, while also looking for clues to make sure this car accident wasn't
an intentional attack.
From there, the series builds to its usual intrigue with double-crossing, power grabs,
and emotional gravitas that it's well known for.
6 introduces a lot of new supporting characters that have become some of my favorites in the
entire series.
The most I'll say here is that the story is definitely worth experiencing and one that
I quite enjoyed, but is not the peak of the series.
I would personally recommend newcomers catch up on older entries before playing 6 so that
the emotional payoffs are higher, but 6 tells a story intriguing enough to not necessitate
doing so.
For the uninitiated, Yakuza games are primarily 3D brawlers where you roam small, focused
city segments in between fights to either advance the main narrative, or to locate side
stories or optional extra content like an array of minigames.
Yakuza 6 in particular features a rework of things the series has slowly built upon over
time.
Take the combat system.
In recent entries, the fighting system branched out to allow multiple fighting styles, adding
a lot of variety and freedom to how you would approach battle.
This time, things have narrowed down to a singular combat style.
There are fewer Heat Moves, a signature of the series, that are flashy, over the top
special moves that require building up a meter in context-sensitive situations to use, such
as being near a vehicle to introduce its hood to a thug's face.
Not only are there fewer Heat Moves this go round, but they don't feel as satisfying as
they have in the past.
There are certainly some standouts, but I didn't feel as compelled to use them as I
often have.
Plenty of other intricate changes stand out too.
Characters and objects scattered around have a more complicated ragdoll system tied to
physics, so that they may react more realistically when you're throwing them around on the streets.
Which you'll probably be doing a lot of, as enemies like to swarm Kiryu and are more aggressive
than in the past.
In addition, enemies seem more likely to guard now.
In this new combat engine, an enemy's guard while break your combo entirely, as opposed
to the past where they would just endure it without taking damage, leaving your combo
uninterrupted and still managing to hit enemies who didn't have their guard up.
This ties back into grabbing and throwing enemies so often.
Due to your combos consistently being interrupted, it forces you to rely more on objects that
may or may not be lying around, or throwing enemies into each other to try to create some
time to focus on one particular target.
Even just having an enemy standing guard within your hit box during a combo cancels you out,
even if that enemy isn't the one you're primarily aiming for.
On top of that, Yakuza 6 lacks a lot of weapons that recent entries had, leaving combat feeling
less open than it has in quite some time for the series.
At this time I'd be remiss to not mention that the title runs at 30FPS on a base PS4,
which is hard to adjust to after 0 and Kiwami featured a fantastic feeling 60FPS.
In combat it remains largely stable, at least, though it does like to drop some while exploring
the city.
I'm being quite critical here, but only because brawling is a definite step back in Yakuza
6.
The fights are still decently challenging, and I really appreciated what the new physics
brought to them...but I'm certainly missing the way things used to be more than I was
hoping to.
The basic gist of how combat has been reworked with fewer options applies to the game at
large.
The Yakuza games have built up a vast array of minigames over the years, due to introducing
something like, say, bowling, then largely leaving the mechanics untouched through each
successive entry.
Yakuza 6 doesn't bring back many of the minigames featured in recent entries, like bowling,
but the ones it does bring back are reworked.
Karaoke is a much more satisfying experience now, slugging it out at the batting cages
is more involved, and talking to the hostesses at the club is slightly more open due to selecting
topics instead of just having the hostess talk at you.
The returning minigames are mostly better, and I'm happy to see them finally get updated.
It's hard not to miss mainstays like the large swath of gambling, bowling, billiards, UFO
catchers, arena tournaments and many others, however.
On a brighter note, the 80's SEGA arcade cabinets from 0 make a welcome return, and a couple
new additions were made by way of Puyo Puyo and Virtua Fighter 5's arcade mode . I really
value these neat pieces of SEGA's history being available to tinker with, and frankly,
I'll take as many ways to play OutRun on my PS4 as possible.
There are also entirely new minigames.
Including 3 spearfishing stages that feel very 90's SEGA that see you doing some ridiculous
fishing, a baseball team management simulator that occasionally lets you go up to bat to
help turn the tide of the game, text chatting with cam girls that made me laugh harder than
any game has in years, and more.
A large side story involving actual New Japan Pro Wrestlers is included, featuring a weird
sort of reverse tower-defense gameplay system that lets you create your own clan, and even
tackle online challenges and friend's clans.
I mostly got through this by spamming a couple particular dudes, but I also tapped into some
codes for special characters that have been distributed online so I had an advantage on
the usual difficulty curve this would have.
At the end of the day, this side story will largely be a special treat for those select
few who really dig Japan's wrestling scene.
Despite having fewer minigames than usual, there's still hours of content to enjoy in
the game.
To 6's credit, it was still managing to surprise me very late into the game.
There was an entire side subplot I found that has you visiting a bar and getting to know
its regulars and helping them out with life problems.
Nothing extravagant, but it's the kind of world building I love from Yakuza.
So all of these things combined put Yakuza 6 in a weird spot for me.
Narratively, it's the final chapter for a protagonist I love.
Meanwhile in other facets of the game, it feels like a new foundation to build from
going forward, lacking a fair chunk of what made experiences with this protagonist when
the story was on pause so memorable in the first place.
There's an oddity about the game's map that, I feel, sums up Yakuza 6 in general.
Kamurocho is the main setting of every Yakuza entry.
Players of the series have aged alongside this city district, experiencing it growing
and fleshing out more and more as time has passed.
Longtime players know Kamurocho like the back of their hand and enjoy seeing what's changed
since the last time they got to visit.
Yakuza 6, bizarrely, walls off the top of Kamurocho for no detailed reason, though presumably
it was time or budget in the game's development.
While they may look like just a few short streets at the top of the map, in a game area
as small as Kamurocho, the impact of their omission is felt.
Sure, what's there in the game is great, but undoubtedly players will find themselves wondering
why it wasn't included.
Most facets of Yakuza 6 left me feeling a similar way.
It's great and I was so excited to see how things had evolved, but I wish so much didn't
have to be sacrificed along the way.
Despite that conflict I'm facing and how critical this review is, I still really enjoyed my
time with Yakuza 6.
I found the main narrative to be gripping, and the side stories, from the goofy to the
serious were mostly worthwhile, based on the ones I experienced.
Of particular note are a few that put you in a suit to help promote a small fishing
town's newest mascot character.
It doesn't hurt either that the game is very pleasant visually, particularly at night when
the new lighting system gets to show off.
A nice touch that really helps the virtual tourism aspect is the new option to walk around
with a first person view, which really helps you appreciate all the finer details in the
cities.
I've never felt so engrossed exploring Kamurocho, and I've never felt so excited exploring a
new area in Yakuza as I did looking at Onomichi's various nooks and crannies with this first
person view.
Yakuza 6 isn't the strongest entry in the series, but it's still a very solid title
that is more than worth your time.
Thanks for watching, and be sure to keep an eye on GameXplain for all things gaming.