Yakuza 4

2024-02-19
Ah what a breath of fresh air after Yakuza 3. The graphics, the music, the longer cinematics-- it feels like this is really where Yakuza hits its stride or at least morphs into the modern Yakuza game that I loved when I played Yakuza 0. It gets going right out of the gate too with a windy plot that's pretty fun the whole way through that takes you from a loan shark, Akiyama, to a prisoner Saejima, to a young detective. The four character thing is good and bad I'd say. It's great because you get to play as Akiyama who's fun fighting style and Kamurocho life is just a good time. But then you have Saejima who's a bit slow (though has an infinite combo which rules) and spends a bunch of time in prison which is borrrrring.

Plotwise it's pretty good. Though convoluted enough that even after having finished it uhh 9 days ago I honestly can't keep it straight in my head. I will say I love this introducing us to Saejima who was kind of a legendary character in Majima's past. Also they do the thing where a character introduced early on turns out to be his sister. The way they weave all the characters together is cool. And I especially like how all four come together to work together to take down the big bad (a high up cop?). It's honestly a really cool final showdown replete with a billion dollars being stacked on top of a skyscraper and then blown away by a helicopter.

That being said it's not without it's speed bumps. As mentioned it was has some slow sections like the whole prison sequence (which they do again with Saejima in 5 WHYYY), the whole running from the cops through rooftops and underground bit which is tedious, and the Yakuza Classic: fucking HORRIBLE boss fights. Saito might be one of the worst boss fights in any game and even he is shown up by the final boss fight against Munakata. You have a one guy with a gun shooting you repeatedly surrounded by a bunch of a guys who keep punching and kicking you. If you try to catch the gun guy he runs away and his guards attack you. So you're trying to fight his guards but then getting interrupted by a gun shooting you which you literally can't block or dodge. Unreal. And then people online are like "It's so easy if you just spend 4 hours farming bullshit so you can craft the bulletproof vest." I will say when I finally caved that guys skull in after taking out his guards it felt fucking great. He's just a weak old man and you just whoop his dumb ass.

Overall, a great Yakuza game because Akiyama rules and Saejima's infinite combo was fun.