I was highly impressed by just how much SEGA crammed into Yakuza 4 in terms of arming you with knowledge. From the story to the characters to movesets, special attacks and sidequests, you’ll be wanting for almost nothing when it comes to information. The skills menu keeps track of all of your attacks as you unlock them and reminds you how to perform them if necessary. The Substories menu will allow to you check which quests you have started, as well as their statuses – whether they are completed, failed or still in progress. My favorite, though, was the Characters menu, which not only allows players to look at profiles for all of the game’s important figures, but also summarizes their involvement in the story up to that point. As such, this menu is constantly being revised, ensuring that players are always up-to-date. You can easily be reminded on what is going on in the plot, even if you put the game down for a few weeks.
Considering this came out around the middle of the PS3’s life cycle, I was blown away by how good the game looked. Kamurocho is one of the most realistic cities I’ve ever had the pleasure to explore, with countless people going about their business as you run up and down its streets. It really lends to the idea that you’re experiencing a “living, breathing world,” if I may dust off that tired phrase. Sadly, as is often the case in these open world games, there aren’t nearly enough unique NPCs, so you’re often going to be seeing the same characters walking the streets. There tend to be enough different types that you won’t notice too many of the same faces in a large crowd, but chances are good that you’ll experience a bit of déjà vu when you turn onto another street. Not only that, but there are even fewer types of enemies that you’ll be fighting, meaning you’ll be running into the same street toughs over and over. However, this does create the amusing mental image that these guys are just gluttons for punishment and never learn their lesson, no matter how many times you introduce them to the pavement.
The graphics themselves are actually something of a mixed bag. That’s not to say that they’re particularly bad at any point – simply that there are points when SEGA chose to use better or worse resources. During important cutscenes, characters look fantastically detailed, with fluid movements for the models and their mouths accurately moving to the words they are saying. The rest of the time – notably when players are wandering outside – characters look a bit more bland. Important player characters and NPCs still look nicely detailed, but there’s a big distinction between these models and the regular people walking up and down the streets and the thugs you’ll be fighting. Additionally, while the streets of Kamurocho are a treat to explore with the liberal use of neon on the main streets and steam rising from the back alleys, it was a little disappointing to see secondary locations like offices and docks being recycled during multiple side missions. I suppose a case could be made that there may be some kind of uniformity in the design of buildings or office spaces, but it still didn’t help much when trying to suspend my disbelief. Fortunately, players will spend much more time in Kamurocho proper, where, even at their “worst,” the graphics still shine through wonderfully.
I particularly enjoyed how the music was presented in the game. In terms of the game’s music, it really feels like less is more. When just wandering around, there is no ambient music. Instead, players are regaled with sounds of the bustling city – random conversations, cars driving by and various stores and restaurants playing little jingles to attract customers. The only time the music really picks up is during combat. Each character has his own unique theme that plays when fighting out on the streets, giving a more individualized feel for whomever you are currently controlling. These themes were all pretty catchy, though my favorite was Tanimura’s. This is mostly because its beat and bass line reminded me greatly of a boss theme from Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon — that sure isn’t going to hurt my opinion of the game!
Yakuza 4’s voice acting is Japanese-only with English subtitles. This voice acting tends to only be reserved for the more detailed cutscenes that I already mentioned. While I did find these scenes interesting, and the voice actors pretty much universally gave memorable performances, sometimes it was hard to follow what was going on given the nature of the presentation. I would never fault a game for favoring Japanese voice acting, but, since these scenes require your undivided attention due to the inability to pause them, missing anything could produce no small amount of confusion later on. As I already mentioned, players can go back and re-watch these old scenes in the Reminisce Mode, but that only helps for the select few that are actually included there — not the less interesting, but still informative, story conversations. The vast majority of these are told through text boxes as characters talk to one another. They may not be as interesting as the fully-voiced cutscenes, but players at least have control over the speed of the conversations, allowing them to follow the story at their own pace.
Aside from each character playing differently in combat, there’s also a wide variety of side activities in which to take part when you want to take a break from the main story. The sheer amount of things you can do to wile away the hours is staggering. Arcade and casino games, karaoke, Hostess Clubs, fishing, batting cages, fight clubs – it can be more than a little daunting. Many of these side games are simply there for the player’s entertainment, however, and you are by no means forced to seek them out. Actually, the game doesn’t even tell you about most of them, leaving inquiring players to discover them simply by exploring the city. It’s actually fun to just randomly wander the streets and happen upon the odd shogi lounge, hole-in-the-wall bar or massage parlor. I myself didn’t even know that Kamurocho was home to a bowling alley until late in the game when I had to meet a character there for a sidequest. While Kamurocho may not be the biggest city that players have ever explored in a game, it can, at times, get to be a trek when running back and forth from place to place, especially if you aren’t in the mood to pound on every Yakuza wannabe you meet along the way. Luckily, there are taxi stops dotting the city that let you fast travel for a small fee.
Each of the characters also has a collection of sidequests that present themselves in the form of Substories. I briefly mentioned these earlier, but they really do bear a closer look. Substories add a bit of extra flavor to the Yakuza 4’s overarching story. While these aren’t actually important to the plot, they are fun diversions that show a bit more of our heroes’ personalities and often reward players with large chunks of XP and money. They also tend to include a bit more comedy than the main story – often venturing into that special brand of ridiculousness that only the Japanese can produce.
For the most part, these were interesting and easy to follow, though many of Kiryu’s substories seemed to involve people he already knew, which could be confusing from time to time, and probably would have made more sense to me had I played the previous Yakuza games. It wasn’t a huge deal, though, and didn’t really detract from my overall enjoyment of the game. I also think it’s a good idea to tackle these side jobs as soon as you find them, since you never know when the story may lock you out of completing them. Akiyama, in particular, suffers from this greatly, as, at a certain point during his storyline, his assistant leaves him, at which point he says he “doesn’t have the motivation” to finish any hanging substories, though this really just means that she would have been involved somehow, but they’re now impossible to finish with her absence.
When all was said and done, I clocked in at a little over 70 hours after the credits rolled, though I also spent a lot of my time on substories, Hostess clubs, coliseum battles and many other side activities. If you were playing just for the main plot, I’d wager you could probably wrap things up in under 30. As I already said, it’s a game that you can truly get lost in. You never know what might be around the next corner — a person in need of help, a secret item ripe for the taking or just another group of punks looking for a beating. No matter how you slice it, whether you’re looking for an intriguing story, fantastic combat or just giant playground in which to goof off, Yakuza 4 is going to be able to scratch that itch. The game is available on the PS Store for $20, but physical copies can still be found at fairly competitive prices. If Yakuza 5 is even a fraction as good as its predecessor, I’m know I’m still going to be in for a real treat. Now, to track down a copy of Yakuza 3 to hold me over…
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Game was purchased by the reviewer.
Yakuza 4 is available on Amazon:
