Yakuza 4 Review: An Insightful Examination of Loyalty in a Leap Forward for the Series
Yakuza 4 marks a significant step forward for the Yakuza franchise. While the previous games in the series have primarily focused on Kiryu (and Majima in the case of Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 2), Yakuza 4 focuses on telling a story from the perspectives of four incredibly different characters. While this prevents any of the new playable characters being developed to the level of Kiryu, it’s an approach that pays off remarkably well, as Yakuza 4 tells one of the most exciting stories yet in the acclaimed series. // Image: SEGA
In my piece reflecting on my time with Yakuza 3, I recalled having a mixed and relatively frustrating time with the gameplay of Yakuza 3. Fighting was clunky and unintuitive, minigames weren’t too enjoyable due the game’s physics not feeling quite right, and the game overall had a rough-around-the-edges feel to it - as if the developers at RGG Studio were still figuring out how to best take advantage of a new engine and presentation with their gameplay and narrative. Despite those shortcomings, though, Yakuza 3’s engaging, if at times awkwardly paced story was enough to convince me to see the game through to the end. The end result was an experience that, while being ostensibly flawed, manages to stick with you in thanks to some inspired ideas and ambition - both of which have ultimately kept me thinking about the game over four months since the conclusion of my playthrough.
3 was an ambitious step forward for the series, and its stumbles are representative of the developers learning new hardware with the PlayStation 3, in addition to no longer being confined to the fixed camera angles of Yakuza 1 and 2. While 3 took some missteps with its gameplay, it laid out a strong foundation for later entries to build upon - and that’s exactly what RGG Studio did with the release of Yakuza 4. Indeed, 4 immediately makes itself distinct from all prior entries in the series with its focus on telling a story with four playable characters, all of which have different perspectives and roles to play in a story that inevitably connects all four protagonists.
Thus far in the Yakuza saga, players have been primarily overseeing the story of the legendary Kazuma Kiryu, who, after the events of Yakuza 3, seems to finally be free of the influence of his past in the yakuza. As such, Yakuza 4’s focus on new characters throughout the majority of its narrative feels not only refreshing, but justified. Yakuza 4 distinguishes itself from the rest of the series immediately due to its structure of being told in five parts, with the first four parts focusing on different characters that play different narrative and gameplay roles. While Yakuza 3 was indicative of growing pains of a new engine, Yakuza 4 is the fully-grown realization of what Yakuza 3 aspired to be. 4 manages to improve upon nearly all aspects of its predecessor, resulting in a game that needs to be commended for how much it pushes the series forward.
Yakuza 4’s story is one concerning the price of loyalty and the weight of consequences for one’s actions. Centering on Taiga Saejima’s shooting on an enemy yakuza family that occurs 25 years before the events of the game itself, we see the consequences of this event unfold, with people being killed off in order to be silenced from spilling the truth of Saejima’s confrontation. What follows is a story uncovering the truth of what actually happened, strengthened by the game’s implementation of multiple protagonists. // Image Captured on PlayStation 5
Despite having a decisively unique story structure compared to previous games in the series, Yakuza 4 still tells a story that’s befitting of the excellent character drama that the series has become known for. Like previous entries, we focus on an event that brings about a struggle between multiple yakuza families, resulting in a war between families and clans that inevitably catches our protagonists in the crossfire. The story of Yakuza 4 primarily centers around Taiga Saejima’s attack on the Ueno Seiwa Clan - an act that we see is one filled with both loyalty and betrayal. Saejima is a man that is loyal to a fault, willing to put his entire life on the line for the sake of his yakuza family. Despite his sworn brother and series veteran Goro Majima not showing up to assist him in the hit, Saejima continues with the hit by himself, killing eighteen men and getting arrested shortly thereafter. While the hit takes place in 1985, most of Yakuza 4’s story takes place in 2010, when Saejima’s execution date in prison is finally coming up. However, multiple people that supposedly know the truth about the events that transpired around Saejima’s hit begin being murdered, suggesting that there’s more to Saejima’s hit than our initial glimpse of it may suggest.
That said, we don’t even see the introduction of Saejima until a few hours into the game. The first part of the game actually focuses on Shun Akiyama, a local loan shark in Kamurocho that witnesses the murder of someone who is later revealed to have known the truth behind the hit on the Ueno Seiwa clan. Not long after, Akiyama, a man who seems to be incredibly trusting of other people, perhaps to a fault, meets a mysterious woman calling herself Lily. This woman requests ¥100,000,000 for reasons she doesn’t disclose to Akiyama. But, being the trustworthy person that he is, Akiyama gives the money to her after Lily passes a test involving the game’s aggressively mediocre hostess minigame (more on that later).
In addition to the murder witness and loan shark perspective of Akiyama, we also eventually play as Masayoshi Tanimura, a cop that is almost immediately established as someone that doesn’t conform to socially accepted police protocol, as one of his first scenes involves him collecting money to support illegal Asian immigrant businesses and communities. More interestingly, Tanimura gives players the perspective of someone working against the yakuza, which is an inherently distinct, refreshing approach to the storytelling seen in the series thus far. Moreover, Tanimura’s section is more focused on police corruption, as he seeks to discover someone on the police force that’s associated with the Ueno Seiwa clan, a conflict that leads to some exciting mystery and drama.
Lastly, players eventually reunite with Kazuma Kiryu, with him being the last playable character given to the player. Kiryu is introduced shortly after Saejima escapes the penitentiary that he would have been executed at and washes up on the beach near Kiryu’s orphanage (which is indicative of an issue with Yakuza 4’s plot that I’ll touch upon later). After Saejima reveals his insistence to learn the truth about why Majima never showed up to help with the hit on the Ueno Seiwa clan in 1985, Kiryu, through the kindness of his character that we’ve seen exemplified so often in the series thus far, gives Saejima money and clothes to get to Kamurocho to find the answers he’s looking for. After Tanimura’s section of the story, we see Kiryu return to Kamurocho to help find Saejima and bring him to safety.
Note: The following section discusses story spoilers for Yakuza 4. To avoid spoilers, scroll down to the next boldened section.
The four characters ultimately end up forming an alliance with one another, resulting in a finale that combines their respective gameplay styles and story arcs to a dramatic, satisfying conclusion. While previous entries have focused a lot on Kiryu and the effect that he has on other people, Yakuza 4’s different approach to its storytelling allows other characters to have their own time in the spotlight, resulting in a narrative that feels more complex and interconnected. All of the four playable characters have radically different personalities and life paths, yet they are all united by one thing: loyalty.
Akiyama is overly trustworthy when it comes to loaning (and sometimes, outright giving) money to people because he was in poverty himself not that long ago. Thus, he has a keen understanding of the money-related struggles that people go through. And so, when Akiyama is requested by Lily to provide ¥100,000,000 to her, he doesn’t question why as he finds himself loyal to the people that turn to others for financial help since he was in a similar boat during the events of the first Yakuza.
Saejima is loyal to his yakuza family, though for reasons different from just about any other character we’ve seen in the Yakuza franchise. We eventually learn that Lily is, in actuality, Yasuko Saejima - Taiga’s sister. We learn that the only reason Taiga Saejima ended up in the yakuza in the first place was to help his sister get a kidney transplant, but his loyalty to his sister and her well-being ultimately cost him entering a dangerous hit that would inevitably result in his imprisonment and death sentence. Since Taiga Saejima is so loyal to his yakuza and biological family, he inevitably ends up paying the price of his freedom, only to eventually learn that he was actually framed for the 1985 hit the entire time - therefore, Saejima’s loyalty and willingness to do as he’s told for the sake of his sister’s health is taken advantage of. In my experience, this made Saejima one of the most sympathetic and likable characters in the entire series. Despite his gruff and intimidating exterior, he’s ultimately an incredibly caring individual that only wants the best for his family and is willing to do anything to help them with what they need - even if it puts himself in danger. And it’s that danger that he ultimately pays consequences for. Saejima’s story and his relationship with loyalty is the glue that holds the entire story of Yakuza 4 together.
The theme of loyalty and its potential consequences extends to Tanimura’s story, where we learn of his loyalty to his father, a cop that was mysteriously killed shortly after the Ueno Seiwa hit in 1985. We learn that Tanimura has primarily pursued police work as a means of learning about the truth of his father’s death. In addition, Tanimura eventually learns of the existence of someone in the police force being part of the Ueno Seiwa clan, playing an inside-the-law role in the Ueno Seiwa hit and covering up any people who got close to discovering the truth - one of which was Tanimura’s father. Tanimura’s loyalty towards avenging his father in addition to defeating the corruption present in the police force drives him to uncover more about the Ueno Seiwa hit, connecting his story quite brilliantly to that of Saejima.
Kiryu plays a comparatively minor role in the overall story, as his participation in the game’s theme of loyalty goes as far as fighting to protect the kids of his orphanage and the people that wronged him in the past. Miraculously, Goh Hamazaki, a character from Yakuza 3 that attempted to kill Kiryu and escaped the penitentiary with Saejima, washes up ashore at Morning Glory orphanage just as Saejima did. While Hamazaki did nearly take Kiryu’s life, Kiryu doesn’t even seem to hesitate to believe Hamazaki’s willingness to help Saejima. While Hamazaki dies offscreen later, Kiryu is ultimately still loyal to Hamazaki’s wish of seeing his sworn brother, Saejima, cleared of the crimes placed on him. Even though Hamazaki tried to kill Kiryu just a year prior, Kiryu sees reason to be loyal to seeing that wish come true - indicative of the kindness of Kiryu’s character that players have become all-too-familiar with.
As Yakuza focuses so much on organized crime and the complicated situations and relationships that it creates, seeing a narrative so focused on loyalty and its consequences feels like an appropriate theme to explore. Moreover, the inclusion of multiple characters being loyal to different things is something that gives the game an excuse to diversify its playable roster while also serving as an indicator that yakuza, cops, and everyday civilians are unified in their loyalty to other people in one way or another. While yakuza may swear to each other in organized crime, Yakuza 4 shows us that people in all walks of life are bound by loyalty, making people more similar to each other than they may realize. While we play as various characters that have significantly different histories and perspectives, they’re ultimately not that different from each other in that they are loyal to someone close to them - and that loyalty fuels their motivation to helps those that they’re loyal to.
The overall theming, structure, and quality of Yakuza 4’s storytelling is quite strong. Thankfully, there’s no exposition dumps like in Yakuza 3, and the pacing, despite switching around multiple characters during its runtime, feels fairly brisk. Each character’s section feels like a complete character arc that progresses the main story enough to satisfyingly transition to a new character’s perspective. The only issue with Yakuza 4’s story is that of convenience. There is an unfortunate prevalence of plot conveniences that detract from the overall quality of the story. While I understand that Saejima and Hamazaki washing up in front of Kiryu’s orphanage was likely done as a means of eliminating the need for a section where Saejima and/or Hamazaki look for Kiryu in Okinawa, it just feels way too coincidental that they wash up directly from their contained penitentiary to Kiryu’s location, especially when Saejima is told by Hamazaki to look for a man named Kiryu just before they get separated. Another instance of plot convenience involves Akiyama’s funds, which he keeps in a safe in his office. A large plot reveal occurs when a character discovers Akiyama’s safe, which is secured by…a button behind a book. That’s it. The safe containing billions of yen has no additional security measures beyond…pressing a button. It’s a plot convenience that detracts from a narrative that’s otherwise very well told and believable.
This concludes the story spoiler discussion.
Overall, Yakuza 4’s plot is one that feels remarkably well realized, despite a few small missteps. Putting less of a focus on Kiryu was certainly a risk from the developers, but it’s one that pays off incredibly well in my eyes. That said, having multiple characters, while offering an excellent variety in the game’s narrative, also helps solving one Yakuza’s historic issue of gameplay repetition. What results in a game that, while still retaining flaws in its gameplay, feels like a remarkably more enjoyable game to play.
Each playable character in Yakuza 4 has a different fighting style, complete with different finishers and unique abilities. In the narrative, Kiryu is referred to as an incredibly powerful, legendary yakuza, and when the player finally gains control of Kiryu, they feel the power of Kiryu, as he is far and away the strongest and most versatile character in the game. That said, all four playable characters are enjoyable and help give the game a healthy dose of variety. // Image Captured on PlayStation 5
Previous Yakuza titles only featured Kiryu as a playable character. While later released titles, including remakes, would make character progression far deeper, previous titles, namely Yakuza 3, had a very linear progression system with combat that felt unrefined and janky. My biggest issue with Yakuza 3’s combat was that enemies tended to block just about every attack that came from the front, which made Yakuza 3’s combat more of a test about how you could get around enemies to hit them from the back. It worked, but it felt needlessly clumsy. Yakuza 4 immediately improves upon Yakuza 3’s combat through significantly toning down how much enemies block when attacked from the front - a change that singlehandedly improves the overall flow of combat.
Just as significant of a change is the character progression system. Characters acquire experience through defeating enemies, clearing the game’s relatively low number of substories, and eating and drinking at restaurants. Once a character has leveled up, players acquire Soul Orbs which are used to learn new abilities in whichever order the player desires. While many abilities are unlockable across all characters, each character has a plethora of unique abilities and finishers that gives them a unique playstyle. For example, Tanimura has a stance that allows him to parry any attack, which gives him a free opportunity to perform a follow-up. This ability to perform parries comes at the cost of him having a much lower pool of health, though. Likewise, Saejima has the unique trait of having super armor on his stronger attacks, allowing him to take a hit while charging attacks without flinching. This, in addition to his high pool of health and ruthless-looking finisher attacks give Saejima a strong, tanky feel to his fighting style.
The fighting styles of each character feel distinct from each other, both visually and mechanically, to keep the gameplay relatively fresh throughout the game’s 20-30 hour runtime. The core of Yakuza combat hasn’t been tampered with too much - light attacks and heavy attacks to perform combo finishers and occasional Heat Moves to perform flashy, powerful attacks are all still here. While the basic combat structure hasn’t changed, each character is given unique mechanics that help the combat feel fresh enough to never feel too stale to the player. Kiryu is an especially noteworthy highlight, as he is clearly the overall strongest character in the game with the most amount of health and the biggest variety of heat attacks that deal the most damage. We see Kiryu often referred to as a legend in the context of the story, and when we finally get to play as Kiryu, we feel his powerful, legendary status firsthand. While some characters have slight weaknesses - such as Tanimura’s low health or Saejima’s tendency to miss attacks due to his inability to turn mid-combo -, Kiryu doesn’t really have any weaknesses, allowing him to mop the floor with any enemy that comes his way, which only reinforces just how powerful Kiryu is in the story of Yakuza.
The only real issue with the character progression system is that there’s a lot of deja vu that will inevitably occur over the course of a playthrough of Yakuza 4. Each section will see a character reach Level 12-15, and while characters do have unique abilities to learn through levelling up, there are a lot of skills that every character can learn or needs to learn to gain access to other unlockable skills. Skills like executing combos faster to being able to get off the ground faster when knocked down are skills that need to be unlocked by each playable character. This feels needlessly repetitive - I would much rather have each character’s entire set of unlockable skills be wholly unique to them so as to make each character feel as different from each other as possible when fully levelled up. Such is simply not the case as all characters need to unlock access to basic moves, with only more advanced attacks and Heat Moves being exclusive to certain characters. Yakuza 4’s progression system is interesting, but it needed to go a bit further in order to make each character feel completely unique from one another.
There’s some ostensible repetition in the character progression. Moreover, pre-Like a Dragon combat in Yakuza tends to be repetitive by its very natured, often being not too challenging in standard encounters. Yakuza’s combat usually manages to shine not when wandering the streets of Kamurocho, but when navigating through the beat-em-up-style segments when character go through buildings, often capped off by memorable boss fights. Thanks to the better pacing of the game’s combat, these sections truly do deliver some of the best combat sequences in the game. Unfortunately, there are numerous boss fights that revert to Yakuza 3’s insistence on bringing about challenge by having bosses either block or counter all attacks from the front. This makes boss fights feel more annoying and frustrating than challenging. There were admittedly only three boss fights in the game that I felt were truly annoying (with one unfortunately being the very last boss fight in the game), but these annoying bosses nevertheless deflate the overall experience a bit.
Yakuza 4 doesn’t feature as many substories as other games in the series - in fact, side content doesn’t seem to be as prevalent in this game as other games in the series. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though - the side content here is quite enjoyable, with the new table tennis minigame being a particularly fun time. // Image Captured on PlayStation 5
Of course, Yakuza’s repetitive combat is never meant to stand on its own - combat in this series is at its best when its complimenting story progression, whether that’s with the main plot of with substories. Each Yakuza game features substories - side quests - that serve as fun, smaller scale stories that help give more personality to the city of Kamurocho and help further develop the characters that we play as. Generally, it feels as if there are significantly less substories here than in most other games in the series. As such, there are less opportunities for our playable characters and other minor characters to undergo character development during these substories. Not only are there less substories here, but all substories can only be completed by certain characters during certain sections of their sections in the main story - meaning that there’s less freedom for the player in regards to when they want to pursue side content. Rather, there are only a few select windows where players are able to pursue completion of substories.
While the quantity and versatility of substories has gone down, the substories that are here are solid. There are even a few ones that stood out to me - with Tanimura having some of the best substories in the game - one of which involving a game of Russian Roulette and another focusing on a fellow investigator that’s connected to Tanimura’s father. At their best, these substories offer additional character development not seen in the main story, and while we do certainly see some of that in the substories here, they’re few and far between. While it’s a step up from the underwhelming substories in 3, RGG Studio will absolutely continue to improve in this department as the series moves forward.
What has significantly improved in Yakuza 4 is its minigames. 3’s minigames suffered from having off physics that made many minigames unenjoyable to play. Series staples like the bowling minigames just didn’t feel right in 3 due to weird pin physics that deflated the overall minigame. Thankfully, Yakuza 4’s selection of minigames are a joy to play through. The table tennis minigame surprisingly became my favorite minigame to play this time around. While it isn’t much beyond a timing minigame, it’s enjoyable to play through.
What isn’t enjoyable to play through is the baffling return of Yakuza 3’s hostess minigame. Like in that game, players have to customize hostesses, then walk around a club, re-customize hostesses to accommodate what traits customers want, repeat the process three times, and…that’s it. This undercooked minigame wasn’t fun in Yakuza 3 and it isn’t fun here. It deserves mention here because, like in Yakuza 3, the hostess minigame is required to participate in at least once in the main story, and it doesn’t hold a candle to the excellent micro-management simulation minigame that would replace this iteration of managing a hostess club in later installments.
Like with 3, Yakuza 4 was remastered for modern platforms via the Yakuza Remastered Collection, offering touched up visuals and an improved localization. My goal with playing all titles in this collection was to see how much the series had improved over the course of its lineage of PlayStation 3 titles. Yakuza 3, the introductory title of the collection, was incredibly rough around the edges with its awkwardly paced story and often-frustrating combat. Stepping onto Yakuza 4 highlights just how much improvement there is in the overall feel of the game in comparison to its predecessor.
Yakuza 4 tells a more well-realized story in a way that’s distinct from the rest of the series thus far. While it doesn’t offer too much in the way of offering smaller side stories, the main narrative centered around the theme of loyalty and its consequences is one that feels very well explored here. Moreover, Yakuza 4’s combat and minigame selection feel a lot smoother and more well-rounded than what was offered previously.
More than anything, Yakuza 4 is a textbook example of what a sequel should be - it takes the foundation of what the previous game established and builds upon and improves what was there. Yakuza 4 simply feels a lot more fun to play and tells a story that, through its more stylized structure, is one that feels more dramatic, emotional, and impactful. While it still doesn’t quite reach the heights of later entries, Yakuza 4 is clearly a stepping stone that transitions the series from an awkward, transitionary phase to a greater, more polished experience.
Final Grade: B
Thank you very much for reading! What are your thoughts on Yakuza 4? Do you think it represents a significant improvement in quality for the series? As always, join the conversation and let me know what you think in the comments or on Twitter @DerekExMachina!
