By Sam Coles
:
Back in the day during the peak of the 7th generation
of consoles I wouldn’t touch Japanese games with a ten foot barge pole. Why is
that? I wasn’t a fan of the quirkiness when it came to the humour etc. however
with the PS4 I have been exposed to some gems like Yakuza 0. After playing
Yakuza 0 I went back and played Yakuza 4 on the PS3 which has been sat on my
shelf for a while and it is a fantastic game you should play if you have a PS3
knocking around still.
Yakuza 4’s story is told from not one but four different
protagonist Akiyama a charismatic money lender who doesn’t charge interest, Saejima
a man who is on death row after murdering 18 Yakuza members, Tanimura a young but corrupt police officer and
finally the series staple Kiryu who is more a background character in this
game. They offer new cast who get embroiled in another power struggle in the
Tojo clan where they have to stop them and Kiryu basically comes back to bang
their heads together and then runs off back to his orphanage in Okinawa. The
story is very engaging and as usual the Japanese cast pull off a superb
performance with excellent voice acting. The story is really dark in places
however it’s not afraid to crack a smile to lighten the tone this is what I
like to call the Metal Gear effect as it disarms you for those emotional
moments.
The gameplay is largely unchanged from the last three games
where you have the open hub of Kamurocho a fictional district of Tokyo where
you’re free to explore hostess clubs, bars, restaurants and play Sega classics
in arcades. When you’re moving around the world you’ll get into the fights and
these play out similar to Final Fantasy in terms of the random encounters as
there will be the flashy transition and you’ll be in battle mode. When you’re
in combat the controls are similar to a fighting game and it is really satisfying
to nail a combo as you see blood fly everywhere when you beat the living
daylights out of a thug with a bicycle.
Each character has a unique style ranging from a happy
medium to strong and slow which can take some getting used to but it keeps the
fighting fresh and varied. You have an ability called heat and what this
entails is that you can pull off finishers which are spectacularly brutal from
a standard curb stomp to jamming a baseball bat in your enemy’s mouth.
The visuals look beautiful but I wouldn’t expect anything
less from a PS3 exclusive as most exclusives on the PS3 far exceed anything
that the 360 could do. Animation with lip syncing during cutscenes look
beautiful perfectly matching the voices coupled with the insane detail of
district you explore is beautiful it feels alive.
The only issue I have with the game is that the dialogue
swaps from fully voiced to text which is annoying because the acting in the
game when it’s fully voiced is amazing I don’t understand why they swap between
the two.
Overall Yakuza 4 is a great crime drama from start to finish
with some dark and tense moments with some funny moments to lighten the tone.
It can be really hard to find due to the low distribution in the west and you
can’t find it below £10 I got lucky one time but you’re generally going to find
it for £15-£20+.
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