Reviewed for: Playstation 4
My introduction to the Yakuza series was last year's incredible prequel (and my official Game of the Year for 2017), Yakuza 0. I couldn't believe I'd been missing out on such an incredible saga for my entire gaming life! Unfortunately, the only past-gen console I currently have in my possession is the original playstation, so I've had no way to go back and experience the rest of the saga, but I could at least look forward to Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. I did my research on the plots of the previous five Yakuza titles so I wouldn't be completely lost, and then I waited eagerly. At time of writing, I've recently finished Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, and with all follow-ups to a GOTY-winning game, one question can't help but be asked: Is Yakuza 6: The Song of Life better than 2017's GOTY?
Objectively?
Yes.
Just about every aspect of Yakuza 6 is better than Yakuza 0, and the experience as a whole is a lot more focused. However, for some reason or another, this added focus sacrifices a lot of what made Yakuza 0 so great, and it makes it so that, while 6 is objectively a better game, it didn't stick with me quite as much. I'll go a little deeper into that as we go along, but let's go ahead and get started!
Yakuza 6 picks up right after the events of Yakuza 5. Series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu wakes up in the hospital after nearly dying in the previous title, only to be arrested and sentenced to 3 years in prison. During this time, his adopted daughter, Haruka, attempts to run their orphanage singlehandedly. However, after choosing to embrace Kiryu as family, ending her career as an idol in the process in Yakuza 5, Haruka finds that the media's new portrayal of her as Yakuza's child may end up ruining the futures of the kids at the orphanage, so she takes off in the dead of night. Three years pass, and Kiryu returns to the Okinawa orphanage after being released from prison, only to find that none of the kids know where Haruka is. Kiryu then takes off to his usual stomping ground of Kamurocho in search of her. After doing some digging, Kiryu learns that Haruka was in a hit-and-run accident and has been in a coma ever since. Teaming up with his detective friend, Date, Kiryu begins to suspect that the hit-and-run may have been intentional after learning about the current war between the Saio Triad in little Asia and the Tojo Clan (to which he used to belong), and about the new presence of the Korean mafia in Kamurocho as well. But for the time being, the mystery remains unsolved and only grows as Kiryu learns that Haruka ended up in her coma because she was using her body to protect an infant confirmed to be her son. Some clues lead Kiryu to believe that the child (Haruto)'s father is in the small town of Onomichi, so he heads down there and eventually meets up with a small, quirky yakuza family. From there, Kiryu and his newfound gang of lovable morons work their hardest to uncover the mystery of Haruka's accident, the identity of Haruto's father, and the meaning of the ongoing crime wars in Kamurocho, all the while dangerously skirting a secret that could potentially crumble all of Japan.
If you've played even one Yakuza title, chances are you're used to stories where so much movement happens in so little time. But if you're an outsider, take your time to catch your breath. If you think that this paltry sum of narrative motion is a lot, you're in for quite the whirlwind as the plot unfolds. Like any Yakuza game, The Song of Life slowly unravels into a glorious collage of betrayals, deceptions, secrets, and conspiracies expertly woven together to form one whopper of a captivating story. Some might choose the word "convoluted" to describe a story like this, but such a description ignores the excellence with which the many dangling threads of the various plotlines are paced and gradually intertwined with each other. Not to mention how well the story weaves in this game's major themes.
While Yakuza 0 focused on topics such as the often-overlooked power of real estate, the internalized peophilia present in some aspects of Japanese culture, and the treatment of Chinese immigrants at the hands of the Japanese citizenry, Yakuza 6 mainly focuses on the relationships between parents and their children, the old being replaced by the young, the frightening possibilities for crime in the digital age, and the inhumane nature of China's "one child" policy. The paramount issue that Yakuza 6 sneakily centers itself around, however, is that of the parent-to-child bond. The other themes are injected with less subtlety, but they're still integral to the story. The theme of the parent-to-child bond is interjected so subtly and with such care that I didn't realize it was a theme until the very end, at which point I looked back on the characters I'd spent the journey getting to know and realized just how deceptively prevalent this topic actually is.
Speaking of the very end...I was on board with Yakuza 6's ending for a while, but alas, the very last bit of epilogue cutscenes put me so off board that the bartender has been telling me he'll have me hauled out and banned from The Doe and Sickle for life if I don't stop drunkenly yelling about it. It put me so off board that the bartender must think he's a big man, threatening a paying customer when he should be happy anyone frequents his crappy little pub. It put me so off guard that THE KARAOKE THERE SUCKED ANYWAY!
*cough*
The long and short of it is that Yakuza 6 ultimately ends with a whimper. This whimper is the kind of cheap plot twist that I absolutely loathe with every fiber of my being, and it was the last thing I was left with. Does it matter that much when the journey was so great?
...No (he says begrudgingly). However, an ending as weak as this one does take away from the experience. Just like how weak karaoke makes customers not want to visit your bar, Horatio!
Hey, know what I just remembered?
Yakuza 6 has karaoke too!
[Believe it or not, the buildup to that segway is about the same quality as the very end of Yakuza 6, so do with that information what you will]
Normally I prefer to cover the vanilla gameplay section before I break off into side content, but the side stories of The Song of Life draw heavily from the aforementioned themes...and where else am I supposed to go after that karaoke shtick? There are essentially two kinds of side content in Yakuza 6: Minigames and Sub Stories. The minigames include things such as karaoke and darts, while the sub stories are, as you might've already guessed, side missions.
The sub stories are as interesting as you're used to, if you've ever played a Yakuza title. This time around, however, each sub story is fully voiced, and it makes a difference when the time inevitably comes for Kiryu to have a heartfelt Mr. Rodgers-esque talk with whatever character he finds himself helping out. What's more, the tone of these sub stories seem to darken as the plot progresses. This ensures that you won't be pulled out of a "get to this point or they're going to kill her!!!" moment to be introduced to a sub story about helping a kid get a carton of his favorite brand of chocolate milk (as would sometimes happen in Yakuza 0). The sub stories here have plenty of variety. There are stories that play off the game's prevalent themes of crime in the digital age (as many stories deal with varying forms of scams, including "get a prepaid card worth 50k yen"), there are stories that are direct continuations of sub stories from Yakuza 0, and there are stories about domestic terrorism being used as a countermeasure against the ongoing crime wars. The point is that the experience of completing side quests will not grow stale or completely break the tone.
Unfortunately, the other type of side content, the minigames, isn't quite as good. If you read my review of Yakuza 0 last year, then you know that I spent full days of gameplay just doing things like mastering the disco minigame and going through each karaoke track and losing all my money in poker because I was just having that much fun. I spent a full weekend completing Kiryu's real-estate subplot because, again, I was just having that much fun. I had to force myself to go back to the main story in Yakuza 0 because the sheer amount of stuff to do was so well-done that I was content with just amusing myself in Kamurocho and Sotenbori. In contrast, right before what appeared to be the final push in Yakuza 6, I realized that I hadn't done hardly any side activities other than sub stories, and I went and blew all my money singing my way through the karaoke tracks (which I later regretted, as it turned out to not actually be the final push and I no longer had money for medicine). Even so, the karaoke was no longer a bar activity. It was a "reserve a room to sing" kind of activity, and I realized too late that the predominant side activities in Yakuza 6 involve making friends with blue collar workers in the bars and chatting up hostesses in the cabaret clubs to gain people you could invite to do things like karaoke with, so my time with the karaoke was basically just Kiryu reserving a room for one and singing by himself. Even though I'm an intentional shut-in who doesn't leave his apartment, has no intention of making friends in a bar, and might in theory be inclined to chat up a hostess or two but wouldn't be caught dead in a cabaret club and even if he did chat up the aforementioned hostesses he would never see them again because of the whole shut-in thing, I found that to be really...sad...and empty. The minigame itself is improved, and the over-the-top music videos are taken to new, more extreme heights, so it isn't all bad, but it lacks the magic that it had in Yakuza 0. Aside from the karaoke, side activities are pretty limited. In terms of basic minigames, you have the usual slew of darts and more Mahjong places than anybody ever asked for, and a cat cafe as well. In terms of side activities with plots associated with them (a-la Kiryu's real-estate plot from Yakuza 0), you have the Clan Creator, which essentially just amounts to a boring mobile strategy game, but on the big screen. Then there's...one more kind of side activity, and it ties into the subject of the...unfortunate next paragraph.
Look at the subtitles of this review. It tells you that Yakuza 6 is "less sexist" than past titles. Unfortunately, to say that a game/film/book/whatever is "less" of something is to imply that it still is that something. As I make a point of hammering home, I don't give points when a game confirms my biases, nor take away points when a game denies them, unless the game does so in a way that directly impacts gameplay or the story. This is a rare occasion in which I do find myself needing to take a little bit off. Make no mistake, Yakuza 6 is definitely a step in the right direction from Yakuza 0 in terms of sexist undertones, but the ways in which Yakuza 6 is sexist seep into the story a tad more directly.
For starters, there's that one other side activity. This side activity is called "live chat," and it essentially amounts to the player pressing the right buttons within the time limit to have Kiryu type out thirsty comments to the effect of "oh yeah, take it off, Nympho-chan!" on a cam show (you know the kind, don't pretend that you don't). One could argue that the women on the camera have agency and ultimately control what they do, but that actually isn't the point I'm trying to argue. The issue here is this minigame's placement. You're introduced to live chat fairly early in the game, specifically while Kiryu is scouring Kamurocho trying to find his adopted daughter, who, in case you forgot, has been missing for three years. We can argue all day about whether or not being party to a cam show is inherently sexist, but what I hope we can agree on is that roadblocking the player briefly to advertise this, essentially making it so that Kiryu thinks, "I'm in the middle of looking for the daughter of my only love, the same daughter who I went to prison to protect...but if I sit at this computer and hammer out enough comments, this woman might take off her shirt...what to do, what to do," is perhaps in poor taste. Would it necessarily be less gross or make more sense if it were introduced later in the story? No. But if it were introduced after a major boss fight or in the aftermath of the resolution to a high-stress event, it might make a tad bit of sense that Kiryu would take a moment to sit down. At the very least, it would mean he wouldn't be contemplating Nympho-chan's dumplings at the exact same time that he's frantically searching for his (shall I emphasize, female) daughter. Is this minigame a step up from the minigame in Yakuza 0 where women in sexy nurse and flight attendant costumes beat the ever living hell out of each other so that men could earn oodles of money betting on the winner? Of course! But it's far from respectful, anyway.
Lastly, there's the game's treatment of its one other major female character. The female character with the most screen time legitimately only exists to babysit Haruto, get kidnapped, and have her past marital status obsessed over. I'm not one of those people who thinks that Disney Princess movies are inherently harmful and that they all need live action remakes where the princess leads an army, but, like, come on! This character is actually interesting, but she's utilized so poorly and in a way so traditionally sexist that even somebody like me, who makes every attempt to roll his eyes and hold that being offended is a choice, has to step back and say "I'm with tumblr on this one." Is it a more respectful treatment than the blind girl who spent the whole of Yakuza 0 needing to be protected and who got shot and nearly killed the second she made a decision for herself? Yes. This character has significantly more agency than I'm perhaps giving her credit for, without a doubt. However, her poor utilization makes the sexist undertones impact the story more directly. Given how large and relatively heated this paragraph is, it might seem like my experience was ruined by the sexism. However, this isn't the case. These issues had fairly minimal impact on the tone of the story, but the tone was, in fact, altered by them, so that's a paddlin'!
Now, finally, we can get to gameplay. Let me say this right upfront: If you're coming from Yakuza 0, as I am, you're going to need to deal with a small learning curve. Gone are the multiple fighting styles found in the previous title, as this time around, Kiryu sticks to the signature Dragon of Dojima style. As a result, if you're like me, you're going to have to get used to Kiryu not punching as fast as you can press the square button. Once you get used to this, however, you'll realize that the gameplay on display here is pretty exceptional. Similar to past titles, you have your light punch, your heavy punch, and your grab, and this time around these attacks have been tweaked in the interest of crowd control. Early on, you'll find yourself surrounded by enemies at every turn, and the number of enemies you face in any given encounter only increases as the plot progresses. With this in mind, your attacks have wider areas of effect, and one of my personal favorite tweaks to gameplay is the fact that after using a grab, you can swing an enemy in a circle a few times (knocking down every sucker in his path) before finally throwing him into a cone of enemies. Combat in Yakuza 6 has been tailed for tackling large crowds, and it never stops being satisfying to toss an enemy into a cone of other enemies, then sprint up to one of the knocked down suckers and drop-kick them into yet another cone of enemies. In addition, there are so many wieldable objects in the world that it's frankly ridiculous. In any given area you'll have a slew of bar stools, cushions, potted plants, bottles, etc. that can be picked up and used to clear large swaths of enemies. It makes the combat feel far more organic when, in the middle of a fight, you can reach behind you at any given moment to pick up a bar stool and hurl it into the crowd in front of you like you're in an action movie. But the action movie nature of Yakuza 6's combat doesn't end with that.
As you successfully land blows, Kiryu builds up "heat," which in turn fill up "heat orbs." When these orbs are filled up, Kiryu can execute a heat action: a cinematic attack that incorporates the environment in some way. You'll never know when a heat action can be executed until you see a prompt on the screen, but it's always worthwhile to see what kind of action you'll get. The most prominent one you'll probably use appears when you're holding an object and are standing in front of an enemy. Executing this heat action will cause Kiryu to repeatedly bash the object into the enemy's face (if it's a small object), or knock the enemy down and clothesline them with it (if it's a large object). Other examples include Kiryu throwing enemies down a flight of stairs or into the ocean if you stun them while they're standing next to a railing, etc. Different heat actions appear in different contexts, and there's a lot of variety to be found if you choose to experiment. If heat actions aren't your style, you can also go into "ultra heat mode," a sort of berserk mode where you have the possibility to deal significantly increased damage. I personally found ultra heat mode to not be as compelling as heat actions, but in boss fights where the aren't many objects in the environment, it can turn the tide of battle at a moment's notice, so it isn't without its uses.
Gameplay and story are one thing, but the way in which Yakuza 6 stands out the most as an improvement over its predecessors is in its technical strength. The graphics of Yakuza 6 look distinctly present-gen, and it manages to hold a steady framerate in spite of the sheer on-screen chaos that tends to go down. Pre-rendered cutscenes are, as always, expertly and artistically directed, and while the in-game cutscenes lack the same depth, the overall visual look isn't all that different. Thankfully, Yakuza 0's awkward three types of cutscenes have been reduced down to just pre-rendered and in-game, so even when the game transitions between the two, it doesn't feel jarring. Add a truly great soundtrack with tracks ranging from borderline metal to Lord of the Rings-esque choral tracks to sitar-laden atmosphere pieces complete with seemingly arabic vocal runs, and you have quite the strong technical package. One small thing I'd like to note about the in-game cutscenes, however, is the ever-present x-button prompt towards the bottom of the screen. You can press "x" to skip a piece of the dialogue, and I personally felt that it would've been better to simply put that piece of information in one of the loading screen tips or something like that. What we got instead was an ugly little "x" appearing and reappearing after every line of dialogue. It's a small complaint, but it's an ever-present one.
If I seem to be somewhat divided on Yakuza 6, it's because I am. On the one hand, it's objectively the better of the two Yakuza games I've played. It has more organic, fluid gameplay, a more gripping and focused story, a broader cast of well-defined characters, more legitimately un-guessable plot twists, takes a step in the right direction in terms of how it treats its women, and above all else it's a significantly stronger technical package. But on the other hand, I can't help but feel slightly disappointed by the fact that I never once felt compelled to just sit back and enjoy. In the days of Yakuza 0, I would tell myself I'd be a good critic and play the main story at the start of my Saturday, and then by the end of the day I'd have wasted all my time amusing myself in the city and going on my own organic adventures. In the time that I spent with Yakuza 6, however, I hardly ever felt compelled to do anything other than what the game told me to do, and the only times I did sub stories where when they were happening close to a main objective. I had to force myself to go out and have fun in Yakuza 6. Do you have any idea how weird it feels to acknowledge that you had fun with a game and that a game is objectively better, but feel disappointed because you didn't have the same kind of fun that you had in a previous title? As a critic, it's pretty frustrating. However, I can only report on my experience. That's why my reviews are always so doggoned long. Even if I give a score influenced by my subjective feelings, you can always look through the body of the article to see the facts and make informed decisions for yourself, dear reader. At the end of the day, though, in spite of my own personal complaints, I would still recommend Yakuza 6 to you any day.
Let us review:
Sexism seeps into the story - 0.3
"X" prompt - 0.1
Cheap twist ending - 0.3
Didn't feel compelled to goof off - 0.8
The final score for Yakuza 6 is...
8.5/10 - Quite Good
Good work, Sega, good work
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