The Yakuza Files: Yakuza 4

Well, it’s been a while hasn’t it. Last year I made a vow that I would play through every game in the Yakuza series. I was always interested in the series and had been meaning to check it out for years but had just never gotten around to it.

So I decided, hey, why not make a little mini-series out of it. I would get more content for the site, and I thought it would be fun to discuss how the series changed and evolved over time. And it’s been nearly a year since the last part.

I never intended for it to take me long to get back to it. I intended to do so a few months ago but got caught up with other things. Why did it take me so long? Well part of it is that I am a lazy bastard, but another reason was just good old-fashioned burnout. After playing through 3 games in the series nearly back-to-back I needed a break.

But I’m finally here, I’ve played the game, and I’m ready to continue. So, where were we? Yakuza 4 was a big changing point in the series as it was the first to feature multiple playable characters. This was done because the developers felt that Kiryu had become too powerful given all the crap he went through in the previous games.

I mean, they aren’t wrong. For god’s sake, in Yakuza 2 Kiryu was battling Bengal Tigers and Ninja’s while dealing with a knife wound, and in 3 he took down an international weapons smuggling ring. Dude was OP as fuck by this point.

The idea was to add in new characters so that they could start fresh. Kiryu would still be present, he is the main character after all, but he would have a reduced presence in the game overall. This was about building up new heroes, not relying on old ones.

Plus adding extra characters allowed them to expand the gameplay with new fighting styles. This is a beat-em-up game when you break it down, and most of those have different characters with varying play styles. It only made sense to do it for Yakuza.

But the question is, does this add to the series or is it merely unnecessary bloat. Yakuza worked fine with one character; does it really need any more? Do the extra characters add any value? Well only one way to answer that. I’ve delayed it long enough; this is Yakuza 4.

Yakuza 4’s story is both different and familiar. The Tojo Clan is once again in the midst of turmoil. One of their members from allow ranking family has recently killed a member of a rival Yakuza group, the Ueno Seiwa. The two have been at odds with each other after a botched hit job 25 years ago.

In order to prevent things from spiraling out of control the Tojo sets out to find him and hand him to the Ueno as a piece offering. But the situation is far more complicated than it appears and its orchestrator may possess more power than anyone in the Tojo might expect.

The story has what you would expect. Different factions vying for control, backstabbing and heel turns, twists around every corner and big dumb action set pieces. What makes Yakuza 4 different is that it now has 4 different protagonists each with their own motivations.

There’s Akiyama, an affable loan shark who gets involved because his friend was the one who instigated the whole thing. Saejima an escaped convict who was involved in the hit on the Ueno Seiwa in 1985. Tanimura a police officer investigating the goings on as it’s connected to his deceased father. And last but not least is Kiryu who is here because reasons.

Yeah, if I’m being honest, Kiryu doesn’t really have a good reason to be here. The other characters all have their own arcs and personal motivations to connect them to the plot. Kiryu does not. They try to give him a motivation by tying things into the events of the first game, but it’s incredibly forced and doesn’t amount to much. You could remove Kiryu from the plot and not lose much.

I still like Kiryu, but he feels like a last-minute addition. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t planned to be in the game, but they added him late in development out of fear of backlash. Fans tend to not like it when a character they like gets replaced, just ask Raiden from Metal Gear.

At least the other characters are well done. I liked all of them and thought they were great additions to the cast. They all have interesting backstories, they’re developed well, and are generally very likable. Saejima is probably the weakest of them but even he has some strong emotional moments and character growth that still made me like him in the end.

However, the four different playable characters also have a big effect on the story structure and pacing, and not in a positive way. The way Yakuza 4’s story is structured is that every character is given their own part with 4 chapters each. So you play through one characters part and then move on to the next one.

I can understand why they did this. It helps keep the story focused by highlighting one character at a time. I would imagine the story might get convoluted if we were jumping from one character to another, especially in a Yakuza game where the stories involve multiple factions and occasional flashbacks.

It also lets them focus on developing the new characters. Letting each character have their own part gives each a chance in the spotlight, and by giving them the same number of chapters it makes each of them equal. No one character is given preferential treatment.

I get why this structure was chosen, but it has some major issues. The biggest one being that it drags the story pacing down. Because every part is focused on a single character, this means that whenever you switch character the game has to essentially pause the plot so they can establish the new character, their situation and their place in the overall narrative.

The story, as a result, never feels like it goes anywhere until the final few chapters. Even when you do get a big revelation, it’s usually at the end of a character’s chapter and won’t get picked up again until a few chapters later. Right when you think the game is going to kick things into gear it hits the brakes so it can give the next character their shot.

That would be bad enough, but it has other problems. There are certain plot points that end up getting dropped or lack satisfying payoffs. There are also certain revelations and twists that are just really fucking stupid. I won’t go into specifics to avoid spoilers, but I will say “rubber bullets” and anyone who has played it will know what I’m talking about.

There’s also not a whole of interactions between the main protagonists. Outside of brief appearances they don’t have much presence in each other’s chapters. The only time we see them together in in the final chapters, so there’s very little time for any moments between the four of them.

That last part is the most disappointing thing about Yakuza 4. One of the appeals of having multiple playable characters, aside from the variety in gameplay it provides, is seeing the different personalities work off one another.

Look at games like Grand Theft Auto V or the Sly Cooper games for example, the banter between characters in those are some of the best moments in those games. I mean what’s the point of having multiple playable characters in a story driven game if you aren’t going to n them interact with one another? It’s just a waste.

But overall, the story is ok. It does have its moments. Some of the side characters are interesting and there are some interesting themes and ideas present in the story, and there are still plenty of over the top action movie segments to keep things engaging.

It’s not great because of its pacing issues, but I did like more than Yakuza 3. It isn’t as convoluted, though only just barely, and at least it doesn’t ask me to babysit a bunch of fucking kids for an hour. It’s still one of the weaker stories in the series, but it is an improvement from the last game.

Normally this is where I would go over the graphics and gameplay, but there really isn’t much to talk about that I haven’t already before. Yakuza 4 doesn’t change much from Yakuza 3; the presentation and gameplay are largely identical to the last game.

The graphics still look nice for a PS3 game, but so did Yakuza 3 and not much has changed between titles. That said I think Yakuza 3 did look slightly better simply on the virtue of it having more environmental variety. Yakuza 4 is set entirely in Kamurocho, you don’t swap between locations like you did in the last 2 games. Not a huge issue, it still looks good, but it is less visually diverse.

I only have one complaint with the graphics and that’s the NPC character models. These can be shockingly bad. A lot of them look like from a PS2 game. It’s only noticeable during close-ups, but man are these guys ugly.

There is one part of the presentation I should probably bring up and it’s to do with Tanimura. See in the remastered version, which is the one I played, Tanimura has a different Voice Actor. This is because his original VA, Hiroki Narimiya, was arrested for drug charges in 2016. He was apparently proven innocent but still left the entertainment industry due to the stigma surrounding him.

So, in the remaster, Narimiya was replaced with Toshiki Masuda. Tanimura also got a redesign as his original was based off of Narimya. It’s weird when remasters make changes to the games because of legal matters. It’s like how the Dragonball Budokai remasters had their entire soundtracks changed because the original composer got done for plagiarism. You hate to see it, but it makes for fun conversation.

As far as gameplay is concerned, Yakuza 4 feels like an expansion of Yakuza 3. The combat, exploration and even the majority of the minigames are the same. Any praises and critiques I had for the last game apply here. There are some differences though, so let’s focus on them.

First let’s talk about the exploration. As I said earlier, Yakuza 4 takes place entirely in Kamurocho. You don’t visit other cities like you did in 2 or 3. To make up for this, Kamurocho has been greatly expanded with underground and rooftop areas to explore.

I will admit it is nice seeing different areas of Kamurocho we never got to see before, but they aren’t all that interesting. There isn’t much to do in these sections aside and it makes navigation unnecessarily complicated. The weapon shop and armour works are both located on the rooftops, and it can be a pain getting to them if you need to. It just adds more busy work running back and forth between locations.

I will admit that I did enjoy running across the rooftops at first. There is something about it that just seems innately cool, but it wears out its welcome fast. And the underground areas are basically a sewer section and a parking lot. Not exactly the most interesting places to be.

I understand the need to expand the map, but Yakuza 2 and 3 both handled this better. I like exploring different towns with their own distinct feel rather than different areas of the same town that aren’t all that interesting.

As for combat, it’s mostly the same but has been tweaked slightly to be a little more challenging. Basic bitch enemies are as easy as ever, but the bosses were a lot harder than before, mainly because you don’t have anything stupidly overpowered like the parry in the last game. Not always at least.

Which leads me to the biggest change to the combat, the four playable characters. While I’m disappointed in the lack of character interactions, one thing they did get right was making each character play differently.

Each of the four characters has their own fighting styles and have certain weapons they specialise in. Kiryu is pretty much identical to how he was in Yakuza 3, so there’s nothing much to say there. Everything you can do in the last game, like the disgustingly OP parry, is here and accounted for and he can use all the weapons.

Akiyama is more of a speedy fighter. His style is focused on quick movements and bobbing and weaving around enemies. He’s also a bit of a cocky dick since he has a lot of taunts that can regain heat. His weapons of choice are the Kali Sticks and Nun-chucks, which perfectly fit his style of fighting.

Saejima is the opposite. He’s a complete brute who focuses on heavy hitting attacks. His big gimmick being that all his finishers can be charged up to deal more damage. The downside being his slow speed and lower heat bar. His weapon of choice are knuckles, hammers, swords and guns. A wider variety of tools, but I guess it helps make up for his weaknesses.

Tanimura is a fighter with a bit more finesse. His block acts as a parry to deflect enemy attacks, though it isn’t as broken as the one Kiryu has. He’s also the only fighter that can combo his finishers into Heat Actions. He’s a fighter that requires more skill to use effectively. His weapons of choice are the poles and tonfas.

Of the four characters I liked playing as Akiyama and Kiryu the most. Kiryu because I already enjoyed playing him in the last game, and I enjoyed Akiyama’s fast rush-down style a lot. Saejima and Tanimura aren’t bad they just aren’t my cup of tea.

I’d say the addition of the other playable characters was a success, at least as far as the gameplay is concerned. The different playstyles add a decent amount of variety and are fun to play around with. While everyone will have their preferences, I wouldn’t call any of the characters outright bad.

I do have one gripe with this. While every character plays differently, it also means that there are some moves that some characters can use but others can’t. Akiyama, for example, can’t pick enemies up from the ground. I don’t like being limited in this way and I feel like they could have differentiated the characters in a way that didn’t take away certain options.

The combat is still fun. It’s the same simple, crunchy combat the Yakuza series is known for. Though some of the combat systems inherent flaws are starting to bug me. Like how bosses seem to have this uncanny ability to automatically dodge all your attacks and counter you without giving you any option for approach.

You know how fighting games in the 90’s had absolutely cheap AI that would just read your inputs? That’s what it feels like fighting some of these bosses. And yes, it is just as annoying as it sounds. There are some obnoxious difficulty spikes here when it comes to certain bosses. It’s not as bad as Kiwami got, but it’s still pretty bad.

I feel like the combat is at its best when you’re fighting waves of jobber enemies. There’s no challenge in it whatsoever, but there is some fun to be had in being an absolute wrecking machine and laying waste to all who stand against you. When you’re in a boss fight and the boss is constantly dodging everything, it only further emphasises how shallow the combat really is.

You can add weapons and all the heat actions you want, but it won’t change the fact that at its fundamental core the Yakuza combat system is lacking in depth. The four playable characters do somewhat offset this, but since you can’t change characters mid-fight, or even choose who to play as until the final chapter, it only helps so much.

That isn’t to say there is no depth at all. As I said, you do have plenty of moves you can unlock which prevents things from getting too shallow. The upgrade system has been tweaked slightly. You still gain experience from enemies, but this time you gain soul orbs whenever you get to the next level which you use to unlock upgrades and moves.

There are other ways to do this. Every character has a trainer they can learn from. You have to do a small training exercise which differs depending on the trainer but doing so will unlock some very useful upgrades. There are other methods to unlock upgrades, but I’ll let you discover those on your own.

Battling enemies isn’t the only way to gain experience. The best way to get it is through the sub-stories. And thankfully, these are much better than they were in Yakuza 3. There’s a lot more variety to them and the stories themselves are a lot more interesting. Some are funny, some are tragic, and others are heart-warming

There’s less reliance on “X gets scammed and beats up scammers” for one thing, which is nice to see given that story had been run deep underground by this point. I think a lot of these sub-stories are better than the main one, I’m dead serious they were way more entertaining. Each character also has a multiple part sub-story that fleshes out their character more.

The sub-stories here are some of the better ones in the series thus far. They aren’t as wacky as some of the earlier games, but some of them come close. The final Saejima one is especially bizarre and I kind of love everything about it.

One improvement made to the sub-stories is that they’re now marked on your map. While the Kiwami games did this, they also came out much later, so I think 4 was the first in the series to do this. In any case this is a much-needed addition. I hated missing the sub-stories in the last game just because I didn’t know where they would pop up.

Sub-stories aren’t the only major side activity. As is tradition at this point, Yakuza 4 has plenty of optional activities and mini games to indulge. Some of these even have stories of their own that can be pretty fun.

Most of the side-games can be played by any character, though there are some that aren’t. The arena, for example, can only be entered by Kiryu and Saejima, and Saejima cannot visit any hostess clubs.

Every character also has a side activity only they can do. Akiyama has the hostess maker, the poor bastard, Saejima has a new fighter maker mini-game, and Tanimura and Kiryu both deal with crime on the streets with Tanimura focusing on local crimes and Kiryu on gangs hunting him down.

As for the quality of these side games, it varies. A lot of it is repeated from Yakuza 3, so if you liked the games there you should like them here. Personally, I didn’t play much of the side games, because these games are long enough as is and I’ve already played them in the last few games so there’s no point in covering them now.

In fact the only time I played a mini-game was when I was forced to. One of which was the hostess stuff, which I already vowed never to do again because I find it boring. Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in. I don’t like this at all. Optional side content should be just that, optional. I shouldn’t need to play them to get to the stuff I want to play, especially if it’s something I don’t like.

But what of the new mini games? Let’s look at them. The first is Pachinko… oh no. This is actually the first time I’ve played pachinko, and I honestly don’t get the appeal. It’s just, so, fucking, boring!

All it boils down to is an overly complicated version of slots with flashing images and balls attached. I honestly don’t know what Japan sees in it. I should mention that Pachinko isn’t available in the PC version of the game. Don’t worry PC gamers, nothing of value was lost.

Then there's ping pong. This can only be played by going to the new hot-spring location. It's pretty fun, but way harder than I was expecting. Seriously, I got washed on my first game and it took me a few tries to get one score in. Why is this so frigging hard?

Some of the other new mini games aren’t really “new”. Both IF7 and Boxcelio’s got sequels that slightly tweaked the gameplay. They play a little differently, but the general idea is mostly the same. IF7 also has upgrades to unlock when you finish fights, but I didn’t do much of it since you have to do it with every character, and you don’t really get the chance to take full advantage of this until the end. It just seemed a little tedious, so I didn’t bother with it.

Then there’s the fighter maker. This is a management style game where you take a fighter, train them to raise their stats and have them fight in the arena. You don’t directly control the fighter, the only thing you can control is when they use special moves, other than that it’s all down to the AI.

I did not like the fighter maker. Management style games like this really aren’t my cup of tea to begin with, and it would be a bit of a time sink to get the most out of it. It isn’t bad necessarily, it’s a hell of a lot better than the hostess maker, but it is one of those things you’re either going to get really get stuck into, or ditch after five minutes.

The only other things to mention in terms of gameplay are the chases. Yeah, turns out they weren’t exclusive to Yakuza 3 and did make a reappearance. Now, thankfully, they are much improved. Nowhere near as annoying as last time and with some new mechanics and variations added. Still not big on these, but they are better, and I don’t mind them too much now.

And that’s all there really is to Yakuza 4. The core gameplay is the same as before, it just has more characters, bigger areas to explore and more minigames. Yakuza 4 is just Yakuza 3 only bigger. Notice that I didn’t say better.

Don’t get me wrong, Yakuza 4 does have a lot of noticeable improvements from Yakuza 3, but most of those are minor incremental upgrades. In terms of changes, all it does is add more stuff. Which would be fine, but all that stuff makes the games feel bloated.

If Yakuza 4 had one major problem, it would be it is too damn long. And it isn’t like it’s that much longer than previous games. To give some perspective, the average time it takes to beat Yakuza 3 is 31 hours, and that’s just doing the story and a couple of extra side-content. Yakuza 4 is around 39-40 hours. A good deal longer than before, but not to an insane degree.

So why then did I feel completely drained by the end of it? I think it all comes down to one thing, pacing. Remember when I mentioned the pacing of the story and how it felt very stop and go. It doesn’t just affect the story.

From a gameplay perspective, every new part starts you from scratch. You’re back at level one, all your weapons and items are gone so you need to get those back. It grinds everything to a screeching halt just so you can play catch-up with yourself.

And that’s on top of all the sub-stories, which you need to do as it’s the only way to get the experience points you need for the upgrades. Yakuza 4 isn’t all that longer than 3, but it feels so much slower because you’re constantly starting over again.

By the end of the game, I was completely drained. I got the same burnout I got from playing Yakuza 3, and in that case, it was because I had just recently played the Kiwami games right before it. This game felt like playing through four different games one after the other and it wears you out by the end.

The pacing really is the biggest problem and it all really comes down to the multiple playable characters. While I like them overall, I can’t help but feel like their presence detracts more than it adds. Maybe they should have just stuck to the single character, or just have two that would have been fine. But four feels like too much, especially given it’s the first time they’re doing this.

Yakuza 4 is a tough one for me to summarise. On the one hand, it isn’t a bad game. The gameplay is still very solid and it can be a fun time. It’s basically just more of the same, key word being more. It’s an ambitious game in the series given how much it added but it feels weighed down by those ambitions.

Its additions are welcome ones, but they also come with severe drawbacks that hold the game back from what it could be. They went too big with this, and it suffers for it.

As for where I would rank it, I’m not sure. I’d say it’s about on par with 3. It does make some noticeable improvements, but it’s let down in other areas. I don’t think this is one I’ll be going back to this one much.

It is a shame the last two Yakuza games we’ve looked at were not that great, though I concede that might be because I played the games out of order in a sense. These are not bad games, they’re just games caught in an awkward transition period. You can see the developers slowly come to grips with what they want from the series as you go through them, and it won’t be long until they hit their stride.

Next time we talk about Yakuza, we’ll be looking at Yakuza 5. And if I thought Yakuza 4 felt long, then I’m in for it now. Because Yakuza 5 is by far the longest game in the series. No joke, just looking at the average completion time makes me wince. I promise I’ll try not leaving this for another year, but this next one is going to take me a while.