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Yakuza 6 (PS4)

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    Yakuza 6 (PS4)

    Can't see a 1st play, rather surprisingly, for this last outing for the mighty Kiryu Kazuma, so here's one. Reviews I've read criticized the game for being too personal on story, for not featuring all the old favourites as heavily as some might want (Akiyama, Saejima, Majima, etc.), for cutting some of the mini-games (e.g. pool, pachinko, UFO catchers, most of the gambling games) and areas (champion district), and for limiting the fighting moveset.

    These are probably all valid to a degree, but currently I'm not feeling this loss too badly. The story, while more personal, has a lot of the usual heavyweight plotlines and manly melodrama, what with

    the whole of Kamurocho now being up for grabs with the influx of Korean and Chinese mafia taking advantage of a destabilized Tojo clan; plus we get to infiltrate a never-before-seen clan.

    This feels as Yakuza-like in its plot as any I've played before, with some cool new villains and protagonists. Takeshi Kitano is in it FFS.

    The new environment - a sleepy seaside town in Hiroshima - is fantastic. It offers a wonderful change of pace and visual appeal from Kamurocho. The game also has the usual array of side-stories that Kiryu - through a character quirk of social/technological naivety and goofy curiosity - never fails to get involved in. These are as crazy as any I've seen before, including getting tutored in how to use sexy web chat (very funny but about as arousing as a Carry On film) or dealing with a smartphone AI personal assistant that is intent on world domination. There are fewer of these than normal, about 50, when the games often feature nearer to 100. The fewer mini-games are balanced out by some by completely new and apparently quite substantial ones (e.g., managing a baseball team, spear fishing, neither of which I've encountered yet), so whether you feel short changed in these matters is a question of taste I guess. It still has mahjong so I'm happy.

    The one area where the game undoubtedly out-performs the previous ones is in the environmental presentation and the impact this has on gameplay. There are now no loading transitions when getting involved in a fight or when entering a building, so it's all seamless. This makes a huge difference to how the game feels and plays. You can line-up a bunch of hoodlums down the street and start a run up if you fancy. Being able to see into and out of shops increases immersion a lot. Also, you can chuck your assailant through the doors/windows of shops and restaurants and continue the fight inside, perhaps - if you fancy - microwaving some dude's head in the convenience store oven. A new first person view makes the environments a pleasure to stroll around, although it snaps back into 3rd person for conversations and combat. All this comes at a performance cost, however, with minor screen tear being quite frequent, especially indoors. (I'm playing on a standard PS4).

    Last word about the fighting moveset. Yakuza 0 had 2 player characters with 3 distinct fighting styles apiece. Yakuza 6 has 1 player character with 1 fighting style. I get that people are miffed by this, but my fighting-brain never responded well to quick changes between styles and I'm enjoying getting to know this one in more depth. The combat feels as comically brutal as ever and - unlike Yakuza 0 - baddies don't explode in a shower of cash at the merest tap. Some fights gain you nothing, so I think you need to fight stylishly to get them to drop money. The way combat/moves and power-ups are managed through your smartphone is another plus as it streamlines the presentation of this and all other kinds of game info, making for a much neater and more stylish presentation/HUD/menu system than previous Yakuzas.

    In short, it's early days but I'm really enjoying it.
    4
    1 -Yakuzin' for a Bruisin'
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    4
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    5 - Yakuza Jacuzzi
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    9
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    10 - Yakuza good boy, then?
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    1

    #2
    Sure is good gam.

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      #3
      sounds rad, I'm going to do Kiwami 2 first before I get onto this one. I've almost finished Kiwami.

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        #4
        ...and so I continue my journey into the dilapidated seaside town of Onomichi

        and have infiltrated a wonderfully hapless and endearing yakuza family headed by Beat Takeshi.

        The change of pace and tone in this place, and also the changes subtly creeping over Kiryu's ageing character (notwithstanding his hair-trigger temper), are a real breath of fresh air for the series. I'm really enjoying the plot/writing and it feels like it's gearing up slowly for a proper 'resolution' for Kiryu. The combat is increasingly enjoyable as the difficulty ramps up a little bit, too.

        By the way, I found out that there is no weapon crafting shop in this version. This was never a thing for me as it was time-consuming, confusing and the weapons broke after a few uses anyway, but if weapon crafting was a biggie for you then beware.

        ps.: Dear Mods, I forgot to add a score table, sorry!
        pps.: Thanks, QC, some inventing punning there!
        Last edited by Golgo; 06-07-2018, 10:31.

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          #5
          Originally posted by Golgo View Post
          ps.: Dear Mods, I forgot to add a score table, sorry!
          Done!

          Keep the updates coming as it sounds fun!

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            #6
            This is definitely a more streamlined affair than previous Yaks, and perhaps nowhere better exemplified than in the paltry lack of soft pornography. The web chat striptease minigame, which finds you responding to button prompts to enter clumsy flirtatious chat to get the girls down to their bras and knickers, features only two girls ('Sexy' and 'Cute'). The Yakuza 0 VHS tapes featured 30 girls. There is greater interactivity here and it is quite funny to read the chat as it unfolds in relation to the girls' antics, but for any perverts out there hoping to get their grot on...you may feel short changed. Jokes aside it's pretty sordid, to be honest.

            The saga continues. A recent quest involving trying to find milk for a crying baby (including a mini-game where you have to try to work out which type of rocking and cooing will calm him down) is about as gloriously absurd as the series has ever been. It's ace.
            Last edited by Golgo; 07-07-2018, 07:01.

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              #7
              The other characters online during the web chats have some very funny names, like 'Big Papa' and 'Uncle Dicky'

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                #8
                Yakuza jacuzzi lol. This will be my new band name.

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                  #9
                  I finished this last night in what is (as ever) shock horror mode for Yakuza fans - sticking purely to the core missions

                  I'd worked through the series effectively to catch up and done Y0 so had to take a reasonable break to be in the mindset to even attempt Yakuza 6 given how overly similar each game is to the next. I know the bottom line immediate complaint is that a Yakuza should be savoured like a fine wine and its side missions plundered etc but if I'd have done that I'd have never finished it especially with Y0: PC Edition mere days away also.

                  As expected it took a while to settle with the game. The first third (new setting aside) is too similar to Yakuza 1&3 for my tastes. After that it gets into a nice groove though, not spending too long in either location for too long before switching back to the other. I don't mind the streamlining over Y0 either, when the series started to introduce multiple characters and fighting styles since Y4 I started to lose interest as Kiryu really is the only protagonist I care about making Yakuza 6 the point where I anticipated it being my finale as well as his.

                  The plot was okay, pretty standard stuff. I think for me the main niggles on that front would be a McGuffin later in the game that's set up for a big reveal that ends up being too stupid to take seriously and the lack of legacy characters for this final outing for Kiryu. The later I got through the game the more I enjoyed it, it's more a personal story tale this one. I'm going to take the slow approach as Sega launches the PC versions in seemingly narrative order but despite my original intentions I could see myself giving Yakuza 7 a punt in time. Overall it's a very atypical entry to the series but the charm is still there.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I've been distracted endlessly into the side missions, which - given the way this game is set up - I think was a mistake. Collecting cats for the Neko Café, fetching loo roll for someone stuck in public toilets, chatting up girls in the cabaret, eating everything I can find. Also been doing the spearfishing (1st person on-rails shooter), baseball (team management) and clan building/combat (RTS-lite) minigames, which have more to them. All have given me EXP in spades so - given the lack of the different upgrade trees that we had in previous games - I'm OP and can deck most goons with a single punch now. The whole thing has become quite absurd and practically plays itself with no effort, but when I pop in the disk to see if I can be bothered to continue I end up playing for a couple of hours and enjoying myself. Bashed a goon through the glass frontage of a convenience store last night and used a Heat move to get the shop assistant to warm up his head in the microwave. Half way through and the story is getting better...

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                      #11
                      I'm on the last push of this game now - I think - after getting sidetracked into many mini-games, especially the baseball and the 'make drinking buddies in a pub' minigame. Punched a shark yesterday. I'm posting this only to say that I've put on 6 lbs as a result of playing this game late at night. The need to keep packing Kiryu with delicious food for EXP and health regen has sent me many times to the snack cupboard. Even his gym training regime involves being sent out to hunt awesome grub. Just a warning, for any snackers out there......this game can make you fat.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by Golgo View Post
                        IBashed a goon through the glass frontage of a convenience store last night and used a Heat move to get the shop assistant to warm up his head in the microwave. Half way through and the story is getting better...
                        I love Yakuza for this stuff

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                          #13
                          Finished this yesterday. Really enjoyed it, looks fantastic and plays brilliantly in the new engine. although the limited combat options and cut down mini-game selection does give it a feeling of being a bit rushed. The town of Onomichi is especially sparse. The new additions of the baseball game and RTS street fighting/manager game are well implemented and good to look at but, again, prove to be quite shallow diversions in the end. Story was the usual Yakuza round of honour, manly eyebrows, betrayals and self-sacrifice. Apart from the pivotal plot McGuffin that Superman Falls alludes to, which was so stupid and pointless it could have been written by Hideo Kojima for an MGS, I enjoyed the plot, and - contrary to what some critics have moaned about -

                          I like the way Kiryu is 'dead' but not actually dead. Pretty much guaranteed to come back in a big 'reveal' in some future instalment, I guess

                          . There were some performance issues with the new engine, so I hope they can optimize it a bit for the ongoing kiwami editions.
                          Last edited by Golgo; 20-08-2018, 10:08.

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                            #14
                            Started this last week and have unintentionally motored through it - I'm right at the end already (I believe), and although I've done a few side quests along the way I know there's a lot that I've missed too. A lot of the bigger 'extras' aren't so much to my tastes - hi Kiryu Clan - but it does definitely feel like the visual upgrade has resulted in a lot of the other extra stuff being pared back. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I do feel like for one, combat's gotten a little repetitive - I keep using the same heat action over and over, and my fighting strategy on the street is basically to race to the nearest bike rack before picking one up and wrapping it round every goon's face.

                            It's almost a shame that 0 was such a high watermark, as although I'm still enjoying this immensely, I know it's going to get overlooked. Still, let's see how it closes.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Yep, still love this game (and the series) to bits. Regarding the last couple of chapters + ending:


                              It's clear as day that Takeshi Kitano's role is going to amount to something big - you know this before you even start the damn game - but when you actually got the backstory and saw what triggered the changes in him, I actually felt like the way they wrote and cast him, and how he played it was really, really well fitting. After all of the whisperings, I was a little worried the 'Secret of Onomichi' was going to fall totally flat on its face when it got revealed, but I thought it was a pretty decent reveal too, other than just how ludicrous it is that it was able to be kept that much of a secret. But really, why would we start to question the realism of these games now?

                              Also - although the letter to Daigo was a bit of a surprise, I thought the last scenes are a little toothless. I appreciate it's probably quite controversial to have Kiryu killed off, but I feel the game was calling out for it - and given this is meant to be the end of his story arc, I can't see when better to do it. Instead we are expected to believe he's capable of living a normal, quiet life away from his loved ones, doing anything other than wandering the streets of various Japanese cities and getting into capers



                              The trophy requirements getting scaled back meant I actually stuck with it for the platinum, too - which in the past games would've taken 3 times as long. I was a little sad that bits of Kamurocho were closed off; I was waiting to go back to the Champion District all game long!

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