A decent tech demo disguised as a full-fledged Yakuza title
All out of heat!
At the time when I originally wrote this review I was busy juggling between playing Yakuza 6, Persona 5, Yakuza 0, Nioh and other games. Unlike prior games I've found it difficult to grant Yakuza 6 my utmost attention as I had initially planned. My fondness for playing Persona 5 making it even more harder but until recently I decided I wanted to finish Yakuza 6 before the former and do a review for both. If nothing else because P5 is a game I want to take my time with. The same would have been the case for Yakuza 6, if it wasn't for the fact in terms of content the game falls short. Yakuza 6 reminds me of the days when a sequel having more stuff in it than the original was something that was taken as read. I thought that was the formula: first game makes the money, second game uses the money to expand. Usually it's not 'til the third game that you really knuckle down to start ruining everything. In Yakuza's case it appears to be the sixth title where we are all out of heat.
During my time playing Yakuza 6 I had the strangest sense of Dejá Vu like I've been through this before? Disregarding it being yet another huge graphical step for the series, overhauling its looks and mechanics alike. This is the first real entry designed with next-gen tech in mind. In terms of content, and story flow, it seems to ride the Yakuza 3 train all the way to Azerbaijan. Yakuza 6, for all of its boasting in the graphical department, delivers a less content meaty game than any of the prior entries. Going from the immense content-rich game that was Yakuza 5, to the marvel that was Yakuza 0, we end the story of Kazuma Kiryu with a regrettably lackluster sixth entry that is Yakuza 6.
The story starts off promising, if a little bit samey to the likes of Yakuza 3 and Yakuza 1. For the sake of avoiding spoilers I'll refrain from talking about the events of Yakuza 5 in detail, and stick to what is important to Yakuza 6. The story takes place straight after the ending of Yakuza 5, where Kiryu gets hospitalized after having sustained an injury due to a set of circumstances that happened at the end of Yakuza 5. The well-beloved established characters like Taiga Saejima and Goro Majima gets sent away to prison never to be heard from again, with the exception of Shun Akiyama. All of this is done to make the player familiar with a new array of characters introduced in this game. While these characters are certainly fun, and well written, it feels wrong to have them replace the whole established cast we've gotten to know over 5 games. Most of the old characters don't actually show up in the game, and those that do are barely there.
Having beloved cult director Takeshi Kitano play a jovial yakuza boss is certainly exciting, but he mumbles his lines a lot to a point where even native speakers of Japanese have trouble understanding him. Nagumo and the rest of Hirose Family character are fun, and have great chemistry, but this being Kiryu's final game and our last chance to spend time with the old characters. Their absence seems like a big missed opportunity.
The Story
Kiryu is sent to prison once again, due to the Japanese police being thick, and deciding to arrest a man who was trying to help them do their job in Yakuza 5. Their handling of criminals in the series is so alarmingly bad, that one of their best detectives prefers to perform vigilante justice alongside an ex-Yakuza than following police protocol. Haruka finds herself drowned in scandals on the web, due to her recently revealed relations to the Yakuza, decides to leave the Orphanage and children behind. She later gets herself into a pickle once again, when she was run down by a car, and it's up to Kiryu to unpickle her out of it. He starts by looking into the conspiracy surrounding her accident, and the identity of the father to the child she had with her. This being a Yakuza game, all of this is somehow once again connected to all the branches of Japanese organized crime syndicates.
The conspiracy takes Kiryu tthrough Onomichi Jingaicho, a ficitonal coastal town located in the eastern parts of the Hiroshima prefecture as well as an inexplicably more narrow-designed Kamurocho; The iconic red light district that now lacks both the Champion and Hotel District as well as many of the upper parts of the city.
While Hiroshima and Kamurocho are certainly gorgeous looking, and really, really well done recreations of a modern Japanese metropolis and seaside town--They fall short, however, of not having a whole lot of activities to keep them alive as usual. The game is a marvel on a technical level but it stutters on an ordinary PS4, and the framerate is below acceptable. During process of prettying-up the skyboxes it feels like the designer forgot to include some fun activities to keep the wheels running. Kamurocho still has a few of its memorable stores, settings and locales to enter like Serena, The Millenium Tower, that one ramen shop and the arcade. The charm of the Yakuza series has always been towns like Kamurocho, and getting to see how it constantly evolves and changes with each passing entry, getting to know all its odds and ends, discovering new areas that wasn't there before.
That sense of dynamic wonder is lost on a game that dumps a lot of the recurrent streets, buildings from previous games. Its absence being labeled as "under reconstruction" and having no real story reasons for its exclusion is questionable. Not
Side Content
None of this is helped with there not being any real new areas added to Kamurocho itself, and there are less mini-games as well, apart from a few like Clan Creator, Baseball Manager or Underwater Fishing.
Recurring games like Pool and Bowling have disappeared, which have both been staple mini-games for the series. Yakuza 6's motto seems to be taking things away, without compensating too much. Looking at the short amount of time between the game's announcement, the release of Yakuza 0, and it having 2 tech demos; It feels like stagnation is an inevitable outcome if Sega doesn't permit more development time for each entry.
Those that have been added are a mixed bag. The more prominent mini-games like Clan Creator is probably the most fun and thoroughly designed of the bunch. It reminded me a lot of a mix between Fighter Maker from Yakuza 4 and Cabaret Club Management from Yakuza 0. You're building up your own street gang, and you have to manage them through a real-time-strategy based scenario, which is as fun as it sounds. You spent your own experience leveling up your fighters, and manage your hierarchy within the clan, giving your best men the most authority etc.
There's a long-spanning story tied to it which also reminded me of the Cabaret and Real-estate stuff from 0. You're going up against a street gang leader calling himself Justis, alongside 5 lieutenants (I believe) as they desire to control all of the streets of Onomichi. It's up to you to liberate the town from his grasp, and that's about the gist of it. The mechanics in Clan Creator, and the strategy, isn't too deep at best you will find yourself zerging the enemy with hordes of big burly dudes and gun-men.
Alongside that there is on-rail-shooter-based mini game involving dive-fishing with a hook, which is pretty decent, and also a fully playable version of Virtua Fighter 5. To my dismay, it doesn't feel like much of a mini-game as much as it is a tag-along game. There's also a quirky mini-game involving live-chatting with famed Japanese pornstars which is more hilarious than it is sexy--But really, it gets dull really quickl. Sadly, this might as well be the tagline that underlines most of the game, even the combat.
Combat
Like many other things that Yakuza 3 did at the time of its release, so too did Yakuza 6 give its combat mechanics a major overhaul. The Ultimate Heat Mode, for starters, bearing a striking resemblance in its function to Yakuza 3's Red Heat. Kiryu can deliver powerful finishers in this mode, but the abilities available are in the few and it gets repetitive quickly. Unlike with 0 where 4 different distinct styles were introduced, each packed with special counters, abilities, heat actions, the combat of Yakuza 6 while flashy, and promising with its occasionally fun rag doll physics is a bare boned simplistic chore.
The lackluster amount of heat available, and having no real counters or any special attacks leaves a lot to be desired. For fear of repeating myself, it makes the combat feel really dull in the long run. That should not be the case for a Yakuza game. While the feeling of kicking a guy so hard he literally flies across the street is fun, the ragdoll physics are a double edged sword and most of the time that doesn't happen. Many times the physics betray you, Kiryu becomes hard to control, and it's hard to lock on to enemies than it was in previous games. Most of the time the physics glitches out, and makes look silly as opposed to awesome and satisfying.
Ultimate Heat Mode is where it starts feeling close to your average Yakuza combat but even then it doesn't have the thrill of Rush, Beast, Brawler or even the classic Dragon of Dojima style from previous games. Something as simple as the usual stomp-face-heat move is also gone and most of the ones that are present are all vaguely context-locked to certain parts of the environment. There are also an incredible amount of recycled heat animations for the vast amount of trash you pick up from the ground, earlier games would present many unique heat finishers with stuff you find. The combat is not strictly speaking awful but it's not great either, and that's not a promising feat for a Yakuza game. Even less for a game that prides itself as the conclusion to Kiryu's story.
Out of ideas
Yakuza 6 once again brings Kiryu back as the sole protagonist. Now, depending on whom you might ask, this can be considered a good thing or a bad thing. Personally, I find it to be a step back especially considering the amount of time we've spent with Kiryu for so many games, and how his story has been dragged out post-Yakuza 3. Yakuza 6 represents the kind of stagnation that comes with extending a story for too long, as Yakuza 3 and consequently 4 felt like an appropriate ending to Kiryu's story. But much like Capcom's Resident Evil series Yakuza seems to sport an inexhaustiable supply of evil dipshits in inexplicably lofty positions of power, who can't take a hint and wants to make life tough for Kiryu and those he care about. And having played all of the games, and played this tune so many times, it makes it hard to get invested as a fan.
In vein of Yakuza 3 the story of 6 is once again centered around Kiryu's growth into a type of father figure type. The nurturing and caring side is a rather interesting aspect for his character and definitely welcome. Sadly, undermined by dull escort sections with toddler Haruto, and not a whole lot of exciting development happening overall. We've already danced this dance with Yakuza 3, that spent a lot of its time taking care of orphans. Haruto seems to serve the plot in a form of a "bookend" like scenario, where his story mirrors Haruka's role in the very first Yakuza game. A neat way of having the series come full circle in a thematic way though undermined by a bad execution.
The cirumstances for his conception, and many decisions and actions made by the established character feels off and out of character to the point where I'm scratching my scalp in bewilderment on what is going on? While the new supporting cast are definitely a fun bunch that sport some fun interactions, and chemistry, it feels wrong to exclude all of the major characters from having any significant role. The story takes a few twist that rivals Yakuza 5 on ridiculousness-scale, and the villains are a bunch of pompous douchenuzzles with little depth in contrast to villains like Kuze, Ryuji Goda or Nishiki etc.
Substories and Verdict
It'd be fair to say that where Yakuza 6's writing is at its strongest is with its substories. All of them features voice acting, for the first time ever, which of course also means there aren't a whole lot of them and most of them are quite short. But there are plenty of good ones to be had, ranging from the usual drama to complete wacky sorts of stories. There's plenty of heartwarming and dramatic little stories; Like a coming of age story about a girl failing to become an idol, where Kiryu gives her some heart-to-heart pep talk to help not give up on her dream. Or one that is basically a big reiteration of the anime film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and even one where you get to play actual baseball.
As the final chapter in the story of Kazuma Kiryu, Yakuza 6 doesn't end with a bang or a whimper but more like the sound you get from releasing a balloon and watching it fart its way around the lounge. It's not a bad game, but it's a disappointing Yakuza game.