Title: Yakuza 4
Alternate Title: Ryu Ga Gotoku 4
Published by: SEGA (In the respective region)
Based on: The fourth installment in the long running Yakuza (Ryu Ga Gotoku) game series
Console: PlayStation 3
Genre: Action
Rating: This title has been classified as MA15+ due to Strong Violence and Sexual References
Audio: Japanese dub exclusively
Subtitles: English
Region: PlayStation 3 games are all region unlocked, so any version of this game can be played on any console regardless of region. It is however, available in all main regions.
Cost: The price in Australia at the moment is approximately $80-90 however varies between stores.
Blurb: “Following on a period of time after Yakuza 3, Kazuma has returned to Okinawa and is running the orphanage he spent so much time trying to protect. Despite this, things are not going so well on the streets of Kamurocho, with the Tojo clan having further scuffles among its families. It is up to Kazuma and three new characters, Akiyama the loan shark, Saejima a prisoner who is reported to have the blood of many on his hands and Tanimura, a semi-corrupt police officer. In comparison to the previous games, the arcs for each character deprive the game of a solid storyline, however the improvement in design quality and music does bring more to the table. Of course, all the famous minigames alongside many more are available for your leisure.
Considering I do more of the anime style games, it is refreshing to get around to reviewing a game with more realistic graphics then others I have reviewed. The first two games in this series, are more or less impossible to find in stores nowadays, however both Yakuza 3 and 4 are readily available in stores today. If you are interested in Yakuza 3, feel free to read my review for the game HERE. Anyway, if this game series has caught your eye, read on for my review of Yakuza 4 for the Playstation 3 gaming console.
Two “unremarkable” incidents occur simultaneously in Asia’s largest pleasure district. A minor scuffle escalates to a fatal shooting on the turf of Kanemura Enterprises, a small subsidiary of the Tojo clan. The victim: a member of the Ueno Seiwa Clan, a brother organization to the Tojo. As the members of Kanemura Enterprises scramble to contain the situation, Kanemura himself turns up dead.
Hunger for money and power, influence and glory leads to an explosive clash of wills, all revolving around a single mysterious woman. This tragic beauty, desperate and alone in her pursuit of a dwindling hope, becomes the thread that binds the lives of four men from disparate worlds. An eccentric moneylender rumored to dole out cash indiscriminately. A death-row convict who single-handedly slew eighteen yakuza. A corrupt young detective reviled as the “Parasite of Kamurocho” and a former yakuza, legendary for working countless miracles in the city.
The game is split up into five arcs, the first four with you taking control of primarily one character and very little interaction between the four of them, the order of this is Akiyama, Saejima, Tanimura then Kazuma. The final chapter has you primarily controlling Kazuma, but switching at intervals. Let me get this off my chest first, whilst you do spend some time in Okinawa, all the storyline elements and free-roaming you had in that area are not available, with character control primarily taking place at Kamurocho. Each character has a small plot line that adds to the overall storyline, however for the most part it follows the same three routines: Travel –> Event –> Battle and repeat.
The first arc is to be the most interesting of the four, and follows Shun Akiyama, a loan shark who is wealthy enough that he can give away money upon the completion of a request given to his clients. This follows his story of his history (That takes place all the way to the first game I believe) and the mysterious woman which asks him for a very high sum of money. Taiga Saejima is out to seek vengeance after escaping from a top secret prison and is also a rather enjoyable playthrough. However, from here on, the storylines get rather short and half-assed, with Masayoshi Tanimura, being a corrupt police officer who is more or less looking into corruption on the force, and Kazuma Kiryu who is even blander and this time, is placed as a character who unites the other three in his story, however does play a larger role in the final arc.
For those who are interested in taking a break however, whilst there are only limited opportunities in-game to do these until post-game, you can take part in missions, in which there from last count was a couple of dozen for each of the four characters. These range from helping a fanboy of a certain hostess to ‘spiff’ himself up to impress the girl to becoming a deciding factor to if a person gets a loan or not. In some events, I would say that the writing for these mini-stories are better then the writing for the main storyline.
This game more or less guides you through the game, and isn’t so forgiving as to allow you to go to your favorite strip club or karaoke and it is only until the end-game where you do get to enjoy them. The storyline does remain intense however, but character development I felt was a lot weaker then in the previous games and I felt the game didn’t develop the characters as much as I would have liked. This might just be me preferring both the intense scenes and the light hearted nature of the previous games, but out of the four, this would most probably be my least favorite. It isn’t by any means bad and I have played many games with worse storylines, but with what they had to work with, they were too strict on allowing you to access other parts of the game, and instead replaced it with more filler content.
For those who liked the design of Kamurocho in the previous game, you will be happy to know that they have extended upon the original design and now feature rooftop and underground zones of the district that were previously not available, and they actually work quite well in terms of keeping with the theme of Kamurocho and functionality as a gameplay tool. For the design of the game itself, there are a few new times in the day you can explore the place, and I would personally say that viewing the district at sunset really works well for it. The actual locale designs received a much needed boost in quality, with the buildings and environmental effects looking considerably more realistic to what they were before.
As for character designs, the quality has definitely gone up, however as Kazuma is the only realistic comparison between both games, it isn’t much to go on, but all character designs are of a decent standard and I don’t think you would be able to find many flaws with them. The actual cinematic sequences of the game however are very well animated and offer solid lip-syncing. In terms of battle animations, thankfully each character as their own fighting style, therefore not having each character as a rehash of Kazuma’s moves. The animations are more or less the same quality as the previous games and sometimes unrealistic, but it works.
My opinion of the music quality in this game remains more or less the same of Yakuza 3. There is a nice mix of instrumental tracks that are well suited to the setting and themes portrayed in this game, however as you spend most of your time in Kamurocho wandering around and listening to the various sounds given off by the stores and people around you, the music doesn’t get much of a chance to shine. However on that note, it is much more enjoyable listening to the hustle and bustle of the district rather then background music. Fans of Karaoke will be pleased to know that it is returning, with a much larger tracklist that I would say at least triples the number of potential songs for you and your adopted daughter / hostess or girlfriend to sing along with. Unlike Yakuza 3, you can, in a few cases, sing along with someone which makes for rather interesting songs. I would actually say that the best karaoke song is sung by Takaya Kuroda (Kazuma) in the song Machine Gun Kiss. Oh, and this will be a first, but the best song in the game is the installing data theme…. really enjoyable. As I have stated before in other articles, I am not that experienced in Japanese voice acting but it is of a good standard, and having played Yakuza 1 with the english dub, I am actually glad it does keep the Japanese experience true with the sole Japanese dub.
The battle system of this game is your generic button mashing experience, with you controlling your character and pressing buttons to use either your fists or a weapon to defeat your opponents, who often outnumber you. As it was with the first game, weapon durability sucks, therefore I found it better playing through the game without carrying a single weapon on me. Whilst the same skills do get repetitive over time, thankfully lessened as you can unlock new skills as you progress, every character has their own different style such as whilst Kazuma uses his normal attacks, Saejima can powerup before attacking. In every event, different characters equaled different battle experiences.
The mini-games we all loved in the previous game such as karaoke, darts, golf et cetera are all there, alongside a few new ones such as panchiko and massage parlors. What is sure to get more people cheering is the addition of the Hostess Club training, something which was omitted in the previous game where you find a girl and then train her up to be the greatest money making hostess. Of course, I found this boring and left my poor girl to handle customers herself (Aka. She quit turning up to work because of it). The trophy system in the game is a lot stricter I felt, and gave you less storyline trophies and more skill based ones. Overall I unlocked 27% of trophies before giving it up.
With DLC content, the gameplay is enhanced with new costumes for the characters, new battle arena modes and even some races in the underground carpark. Nothing that fancy, but as it is free (Depending on your country), it is a nice little addition.
In terms of overall replayability however, you can complete this game in something like 15 hours, however with substory missions and the mini-games, you could potentially double your gametime for the last bonus item or trophy. I am not that keen to play it again anytime soon however as whilst it is a rewarding playthrough, there wasn’t anything that I found to motivate me to continue playing after grinding in the karaoke booth with various characters.
Final Score
Storyline: C
Character Development: C
Design: B+
Music/Voice Acting: B+
Gameplay: B
Replayability: C
Personal Opinion: C
Overall Score: C+
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