Yakuza Remastered Collection

[Hero-of-Time]

6 hours ago, RedShell said:

I’m almost afraid to ask this... but are you starting Yakuza 6 soon?  

You betcha. *points to PS4 general thread*  

[Julius]

Finished Yakuza 5 last week - it was my only single player game played in March - and I ended up putting nearly 60 hours into it. Completed all but six substories, all of the side story stuff, and I still wanted more. 

Not a perfect game, by any stretch of the imagination, but I absolutely loved my time with it. It's exactly what I needed, for every minute that I played it, and that means a lot to me personally. Yes, it's long, and I get why it might not gel with some people (it definitely runs at a slower pace most of the time), but it's funny, because I actually felt like the amount of side content and substories actually helped the slower pacing tremendously, and fleshed the characters out a lot; I genuinely don't think you'll enjoy this game as much as you could without experiencing everything the side stories have to show. 

When talking about Yakuza 5, Yakuza 4 is the game people obviously draw comparisons to, just because of the number of protagonists, and while I would say that that story is better paced, this felt like it weaved the narrative and characters from previous games into the fold in a much more natural way (and also didn't treat the series protagonist like an afterthought). Ironically, Yakuza 4's faster pacing had it show its hand early on way too many occasions (as in, you'll finish one chapter on a cliffhanger and get answers instantly in the following chapter), but I do agree with those that say 5 is somewhat guilty of taking too long to move onto the next plot point (even if you don't do the side stuff). 

Akiyama and Saejima were great characters in 4, and were even better in 5. It says a whole lot when recently introduced characters return and I have a stupidly big grin on my face. A certain young idol's gameplay and story was great fun too, and that ending 

On the flip side, though, 5 felt much darker than previous games, to me at least. A few deaths and moments were really disturbing (though 4 definitely has a very disturbing moment), and even Heat Actions seemed way more brutal than they needed to be at times, not helped by health bars vanishing before Heat Actions are complete now, meaning you might be completing QTE Heat Actions against someone you've already pummeled into unconsciousness...again, I can only really describe this as disturbing. 

Also, the entire meta of this game boils down to: "if you can't beat it, grab it." Seriously, that resolved every potential issue I came across in big boss fights. Oh, and this game never had a silly moment where you were getting up and instantly being shot down back to the floor, as had been the case in all of the previous games. 

So, yeah, Yakuza 5. Loved it, and for me, I'd say it edges out Yakuza 4. I get some of the criticisms, but seriously think if they'd stuck Persona 5's 'Take Your Time' loading symbol in here, the game might have been better received by both fans and critics; it's the first one where it felt like they wanted you to slow down a little, and while it slowed down a bit too much at times, it's one of my favourite Yakuza experiences. 

Started Yakuza 6 last night 

Edited April 6, 2021 by Julius