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| Quadruple trouble. |
A year after the events of Yakuza 3, we follow another gang-related adventure in the Kamurocho district of Japan. This time, with four main protagonists. Shun Akiyama is an infamous loan shark in Kamurocho, who only lends clients money after passing a series of his so called "tests". Taiga Saejima is a former yakuza hitman on death row after killing the boss of a rival gang, however, he learns that he's been framed and escapes prison to seek the truth. Masayoshi Tanimura is a dirty cop who extorts money from illegal establishment to his own benefit, finding the truth behind his father's murder. Lastly, Kazuma Kiryu, the legendary Yakuza who is living peacefully in Okinawa running an orphanage, until he's caught right back in Kamurocho once he learns that Japan's largest crime syndicate, the Tojo Clan is at risk.
As to be expected from a Yakuza game, the story is awesome, with lots of twists and revelations to keep you hooked. That being said, it tends to go overboard with its surprise reveals that it can be hard to keep up sometimes. Initially, having four leads may slowdown the character growth, it's anything but that. The game evenly develops each character by giving them their own chapters to evenly develop them. In the end, I really liked each of the characters and got to relate with them.
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All four leads' stories come together in one
epic finale.
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For better or worse, Yakuza 4 plays exactly the same as previous games. You control your character as you explore the streets of Kamurocho, interacting with the locals and beating up thugs. The combat may not have the more refined touches of later games yet each character has his own distinct fighting style to keep things interesting. For example, Akiyama specializes in fast kicks; Saejima is the tank of the group, focusing on powerful punches; Tanimura's fighting style is defensive, focusing on parrying; and Kiryu is the all-rounder fighting packing both powerful punches and kicks. You can also make use of the environmental objects like cones, stands, and bicycles to finish off enemies using "Heat" finishers once you've filled up the blue heat gauge. You also level up by beating thugs and exploring around town, which increases each character's health meter while also unlocking new moves for them to use.
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| Get ready to kick ass! |
There are lots of side activities that take the form of sub stories, side-missions where you help Kamurocho's inhabitants by taking on many wild requests and in typical Yakuza fashion, they can be pretty funny. You'll get some worthwhile rewards like a huge lump of money and some unique items, so they're always worth checking out. You can also dine in many of the city's restaurants as well as visit the ever-present Sega arcade, where you play select arcade games-- though the offerings are lacklustre to say the least. Previously cut from Yakuza 3 are hostess clubs, where you talk and drink with various girls and mahjong are present as well.
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Yakuza 4 has a bunch of content to keep you
entertained for a good while.
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Yakuza 4 took me well over 35 hours to beat. My playthrough consisted of nearly completing all sub stories, leveling up the characters near max stats, and just casually exploring around town looking for locker keys. Those looking to 100% will be in for a handful considering the game's enormous amount of content. The gameplay is not perfect by any means as the game shows its age with the stiff animations, loads of invisible walls, and the lack of a sprint feature being standouts. An issue from Yakuza 3 was and still is the camera, which can be bothersome to see in narrow spaces.
Being only a year apart from Yakuza 3, not much has changed in terms of the presentation department. Main character models aside, the visuals haven't aged well. The flat character models and backgrounds look average for a PS3 game, with low resolution textures being present in various parts of Kamurocho. Thankfully, Yakuza 4 has been recently remastered on the PS4 and it looks far better than the original release. The fantastic voice work has always been a staple in the Yakuza series and it's no different here, with many commendable performances all around. Takaya Kuroda and Koichi Yamadera deliver fantastic performances as Kiryu and Akiyama, respectively. The soundtrack is great with my favorite tracks being Akiyama's battle theme, all of the karaoke songs, and the ending theme.
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Yakuza 4 shows its age, but it
still looks decent. |
Yakuza 4 is another great entry in the series, though not without its flaws. It's story may be incoherent at times but it was nonetheless engaging and I definitely enjoyed the character interactions. Despite some flaws, the gameplay remains entertaining as having four different fighting styles keep things interesting. The presentation is good, with top-notch voice acting and soundtrack. Overall, Yakuza 4 is a slight improvement over its predecessor. If you're continuing the narrative from Yakuza 0, then make sure you don't skip out on Yakuza 4 by checking out the recent remaster on PS4.
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