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!

I normally do not enjoy games that have you switching characters between chapters. I can get attached to my little avatars. I also find it frustrating in games where you invest resources into growing those characters - unlocking moves stats what-have-yous - and then those get sidelined while you go off on a side adventure with some interstitial. Ninja Gaiden 2 Black was an exception, so is NieR Automata and Bayonetta 3 (though that one just sort of sneaks by). Maybe I’m no longer adverse to this because when Part 2 of Y4 opens with a new character, Saejima, I was not immediately put out. I love the deep lore of this backstory (especially after getting a good reminder from Rappy), I like the setting, I don’t love the fighting style. I also didn’t love the weird, sexually charged moment between Haruka and this con, nor did I like the fact that Kiryu saw it happen and did not intervene. It was a weird moment and I found it completely unnecessary. Now that Saejima and I are back in Kamurocho, I’m enjoying seeing how the story is playing out - going after Majima and the Florist - where it’s playing out - in the tunnels and rooftops - and who its revolving around - the unhoused population. The side-stories I’ve used have been really great so far as well, much like in the first section they are more complimentary to the main plot than they are whacky to be whacky. I’m excited to see how this plays out.

I finished part 2! But not because I wanted to, I still had a fair amount of stuff left to do. There was one substory plot line that I really wanted to see through so I’m hoping I’ll be able to jump around like previous games to clean up the loose ends. I haven’t really gelled with Saejima’s fighting style as of yet. I find he’s always looking the wrong direction - he misses (he as in me) attacks all the time. I’m not adverse to slow, methodical characters, but that’s not how I would describe him. He’s slow but chaotic. And for some reason EVERYONE wants to grapple him all the time I’m just sick of it! He has a very weak bench of heat actions, some of them have impossibly small windows especially when you are fighting someone like Majima. My last complaint; his heat takes forever to fill, at least 2-3 perfect combos, and he loses it twice as fast! All those grapplers sap your heat like hummingbirds drinking nectar. The worst part is I’m hardly losing health, just getting knocked down and tossed around.

I also hope I’m going to be able to go back and continue the dojo - I’ve only gotten my student to complete one fight so far. That little nerd needs my guidance. Please, let me go back!

I’ve been a bit busier than I’d like but I’ve still been chipping away at Y4, but I haven’t really had too much to say. Not much, that is… until I met Masayoshi Tanimura.

He’s a cop - he’s a dirty cop - he’s a dirty cop covering for possible human traffickers - he’s a dirty cop covering for possible human traffickers by shaking them down for money and using that money to smuggle falsely deported people back into the country. I love the way his story is unfolding and, like the last few characters, I’m impressed by how urbane he is; he knows the streets, he understands nuance, he flirts. And he’s standing up for those that should not be seen, he’s great.

Tanimura also has this radio mechanic that’s just addicting. You’ll be walking around and an APB pops up giving you a who and a what and it’s up to you track em down. Sometimes these go quick and end in the standard Yakuza way of just beating the absolute shit out of someone, but some of them have a pretty involved story, offer choices, and jam in the new-and-improved chase mechanic which finally feels at home in the series.

A cry for Help

I’m having a crisis - I really want to see this story through and I feel guilty that I’m not investing 8000 hours into dating hostesses, playing ping-pong and losing at mah-jong. It finally dawned on me today what the Yakuza series is all about - it’s a child’s birthday party. There were clowns and cowboys and pin the tail on the donkey and cake and hot dogs and a magician and his mom and dad got into a fight and tried to hide it but i totally saw it - it’s everything a growing boy could ask for wrapped up in a game. Just today I played pool and had a cocktail, then I chased down a purse snatcher and broke up a ring of car thieves. Then I went and sang karaoke. Sometimes this game offers you too much to do and right now, I just want to see my new and old friends Akiyama and Kiryu. I don’t know if I will come in number one at the mah-jong tournament (I’m currently sitting square at 26th after like 2 hours of draws), I’m not sure if I’m ever going to go back and train those dorky kids to win tournaments and I certainly am unsure if Club Elise will ever become the best hostess spot in Kamurocho. But I know I’m going to beat the tar out of anyone who stands in my way, whether I intend to do these things or not.