Yakuza 4

Chapter 1 is complete and MAN! This game was a really knows how to hook a guy in. The story so far is pretty interesting, a loan officer with a heart of gold, looking to help bolster the protegé of a small-time Yakuza family. Some rowdy guests at a hostess club from a rival family, and a murder. This first chapter could be used as a textbook example of how to bring people into a new story with new characters for a well established franchise. One thing I’ve noticed about Y4, coming from Y3 - the music is so much better. There have only been a few composed pieces so far but it was enough that I paid attention.

OH MY GOD Akiyama was a homeless man outside of the Millenium Tower the day it exploded?? Is this how he got the cash to finance his loan business? Part of me thought Kiryu was going to be his mysterious benefactor - this is also a cool throwback. I’m looking forward to his story unfolding.

I’m well into Chapter 3 now and I’ve played quite a few mini-games. I’m really interested in this arcade game, Boxcelios 2. I have a vague memory of stumbling around Boxcelios 1 in one of the previous game; this time around I decided to really give it a shot. It’s pretty weird! I got to level 40 which felt like a win but wasn’t even in the top 20 on the leaderboard. The star of the show, at least to where I am right now… is table tennis.

I don’t know if table tennis was in the previous games, I don’t remember every playing it but it’s great. You have to play tennis, but you also have to oggle the goods of your female opponent. It’s kind of like that dating mini game in Killer is Dead where you need to oggle the ladies enough to fill up a meter in order to give them a present and impress them enough to bed them. Here it’s just about getting your heat up high enough to spike the ball hard enough that they fall into compromising positions. It’s perfect.

I’m well into chapter 3 and I’m reminded of what I didn’t like about Yakuza 3, though I’m not saying this is present here - at least so far. In Y3 the side-stories were bland and uninteresting, and fairly one-note - the ones that I did, which was a considerable amount. I really pushed myself to get them done and towards the end I pushed myself over the finishing line. Here, in Y4, the side-stories with Akiyama have been pretty robust, giving you more of his backstory, even just candidly and without the drama the series can lean on. The side characters are pretty interesting, including the man who bankrupted his business because he was being an idiot, or the man that needed the money to stay afloat and decided to go into money lending - how do you think that ended for him?

Speaking of characters, Hana is a treat. A full departure from the women in the series thus far. Though she is a bit of a cartoon character at times, I like that she’s tough and outspoken while wrapped in a cherubesque package. Hell, she killed a man for us (or possibly just maimed him for life)!

Oh how have I not talked about this - rooftops and undergrounds?? What is this, Tears of the Kingdom? We’ve had rooftops in the city before, just in cutscenes and as a few one-off set pieces for boss fights. But here they are fully traversable and can hold characters and secrets. This is a good addition. Earlier today I was traipsing around and I found a camper van up on the roof and inside was a guy selling me weapons.

Today we woke up earlier than usual and since I have the steamdeck hooked up to the TV in the bedroom I was able to get right into Kamurocho. It looks like I have cleared all of Akiyama’s side stories, the last of which was like the trading game from Wind Waker. I turned one cigarette into a watch worth almost 1 million yen! Not too shabby work, considering it’s not even 9am. I also went on a date with Miki to help her regain her confidence as a hostess - both of these were direct follow-ups to side-stories I had done in the previous chapters. I’m really enjoying the way these tie directly into the main characters’ life and feel more like an extension of the main plot than, say, Kiryu helping a 16 year old girl beat up the pervert that stole her underwear. While I like the wackiness of the previous titles, I like the grounded nature of the story so far. Don’t get me wrong, this game is not taking itself too serious, it still feels like a Yakuza game.

Tonight after dinner Akiyama and I came back to his office to find the place trashed. On the floor in the middle of the room was poor Hana-Chan I was besides myself! A flashback provided us with the who and after questioning some bystanders on the street we found our perpetrators. In true Yakuza fashion, before we went underway with our search they managed to cram in a new character and mechanic. My favorite part of Yakuza 3 has made a return, the photography/QTE mini-game: Revelations - AKA the Perfect Shot! This is the devs getting to shoehorn in the weirdest situations they can think up under the guise of a photography game all while teaching you more heat actions and moves. It’s brilliant. Tonight’s subjects were a man cloaked in underwear trying to flee a panty-stealing scene, a detective wearing a skirt whos perp gets more than a glimpse after a fateful gust of wind, and a Hong Kong style Kung-Fu fight between a jilted Wife and her side-stepping husband.

After my photography lesson, I tracked down the entrance to the Yakuza’s hideout that knocked out Hana-Chan and kidnapped Kido. A hallmark of the series - you find some opposing group kidnaps one of your friends and then its a mad dash through a gauntlet of guys, breaking through doors and walls as you storm into their hideout. This time the setting wasn’t just some tasteless Yakuza hideout, it was the well decorated basement of the Millennium Tower. This chase culminated with the enforcer busting into an office with a freakin’ chainsaw like that guy in Resident Evil 4. It was a thrilling chase!

Something I’m not enjoying is the Club Elise hostess game - complete nonsense. You need to take a girl, use ESP to suss out what the customers are going to want them to be, use limited funds to dress them up to change their stats, which you can only check once, then you send them on their way! You then have 3 seconds to survey the floor to find out what people want via random pop-up speech bubbles. Rinse and repeat. It’s frustrating because the game clearly knows what it wants - and it clearly has one correct way - but its intentionally obtuse. This also comes after the greatest hostess club mini game of all time (Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 2 both feature this mode). I’m not looking forward to interacting with this more.

HOLY SHIT The Mad Dog of Shimano comes in at the end and drops some deep lore in our laps. I’ve been holding back my predictions because I’m terrible with names, but I had been postulating she has something to do with Haruka’s mother from Yakuza 1!