Yakuza 4 Remastered

 After a bit of time away from the series, I'm back.

I played the PS4 remaster of this on my PS5.

This game marks a bit of a change for the series as the focus is no longer solely on Kiryu. He's still there, and both he and Haruka are prominent characters at times, but most of the game is spent playing as other people. The playable characters include a homeless-man-turned-money-lender named Akiyama, an escaped convict ex-yakuza named Saejima, a cop named Tanimura, and finally our man Kiryu, and all of them are compelling. Well, Tanimura kinda sucks, but everyone here is worthwhile enough for their time in the spotlight.

The four characters have access to different substories and activities, with certain hostesses locked to certain people, for instance, and there are additional city-focused mechanics for each of the characters. Saejima can open manhole covers to get into the sewers, Tanimura can talk his way into Little Asia, and Akiyama can earn the trust of people around town to get assistance in random fights. They've done a lot of work to make sure each character feels distinct and that none of them feel like carbon copies of Kiryu, which is nice.

The writing is still very offbeat.

Mechanically, the game isn't doing anything revolutionary. You're still getting into street fights and leveling up, but with four characters in the mix the progression and specifics of the combat, are spiced up somewhat. Each character starts you at level 1, with their own progression curve up to level 20, so you're repeatedly going to be building up multiple different people. Additionally, while the basics of the combat remain the same, each character has their own quirks, combo strings, and unique heat actions to make sure each person feels at least a little different. 

In this game, you can beat people to (not-)death with motorcycles!

Each character also has his own inventory and storage so items are not shared between them, complicating the usual progression of these games somewhat. While the other games let you buy, or find, very strong gear along the way, by changing characters frequently you're losing access to certain items you may encounter forcing you to outfit each character with gear relevant to their time in the hotseat. No longer will a coin locker key you find at the beginning carry you through the rest of the game.

The "adjective-item" system is back, and (potentially) just as funny as ever.

When Kiryu finally does show up, his reputation precedes him. Prior to his appearance other characters will comment on the previous goings-on of the Dragon of Dojima and, when you finally regain control of him it's like stepping back into an old pair of shoes. I mean, it's Kiryu, who doesn't love Kiryu? His story picks up where Yakuza 3 left off, with him at Morning Glory until he, inevitably, gets swept up in yet another yakuza conspiracy. 

The story in general is a larger scale thing than Yakuza 3, which is nice. While I enjoyed that game's cozier vibes, a return to a higher-stakes affair feels apt. There's a mystery that unfolds slowly over the course of the four perspectives about a seemingly-failed yakuza hit that ensued twenty-some years prior, with the relevant opposing family attempting to stage a coup of sorts in the modern day. You know, classic Yakuza stuff.

Watching the four characters' stories intersect was very satisfying.

Substories of course are back, and while the main plot is strong, the substories flesh out each of these characters and show them when they're not dealing with life-or-death situations. Characters are thrust into (what are usually) lower stakes situations and we get to see Kamurocho evolve over time. Shop owners from previous games may ask Kiryu for help, minor characters from earlier games' substories may make appearances, and generally it all helps Kamurocho feel more alive. This is a dense setting and substories help sell that there's a whole lot of stuff going on outside of the Tojo.

Some of them are also very goofy.

Speaking of Kamurocho and how dense it is, this game elects to not have a second (or third) map and instead focuses on making Kamurocho that much more alive. There's now an underground section, with a mall, parking lot, and sewers, as well as a few rooftop areas. Multiple protagonists make for a game that still feels packed with stuff to find and characters to interact with, and being able to explore more of the city lets this little slice of Tokyo feel that much more real. You don't really feel the loss of Okinawa or Sotenbori because Kamurocho has always been one of the stars of this series and getting to see more of it makes even the familiar areas feel novel.

Switching gears, now that we're four games in, I think I'm starting to appreciate the hostess sections. Maybe it's just Stockholm Syndrome, but I like the fact that it lets us see a more casual side of each character. We get a look into how they feel about certain topics and, with Kiryu specifically, we'll sometimes get to hear him acknowledge and allude to earlier games. It's not super in-depth and it's little more than fanservice ultimately, but as a fan of these games I enjoy being serviced.

At least Kiryu remembers Sayama.

The Hostess Maker minigame from Yakuza 3 returns, but this time Kiryu and Tanimura are able to visit the hostesses that you train as Akiyama. Similarly, Saejima has a place where he can train fighters that you can later partner up with at the Coliseum. There's still a massage minigame, and karaoke, and fishing, and baseball, and so, so, so many others. 

While most of the minigames are enjoyable enough, some of them are, I don't know, uncomfortable? The table tennis one centers around a mechanic where you can stare at your (female) opponent's chest to build up your Heat meter, and playing that one made me feel gross. The massage clinic once again has you play a rhythm minigame while someone does "sexy" poses in the background to distract you, and the final stage of the batting cage has you hitting targets to reveal panels of a pinup poster. Games are allowed to have sex appeal and titillation, but I thought most of this stuff was just kind of embarrassing. 

This is downright silly.

As always, I've included my completion screen below. This is what my playtime and stats looked like after I finished the game.

💯

Yeah... I, uh, hundred-percented this. It was a pretty exhausting process, if I'm being honest. There were a lot of minigames in this, and the completion requirements for this game, well, require you to play basically all of them to some extent. While most of the chance-based games have cheat items you can use to cheese those challenges, the other minigames are far more time-consuming because you have to actually be somewhat competent at them. 

You have to learn the timing for the batting cage, you need to get good at the golf system, you need to play enough of the various casino and gambling games, heck, you need to be good enough at mahjong to basically double your chips in a handful of rounds. I had never played mahjong before so this was, uh, difficult. I spent most of this past weekend learning the rules and playing it repeatedly. I went from an inexperienced know-nothing to someone who can beat the (beginner) AI somewhat consistently and, you know what? I'm pretty proud of that.

Finally getting over 50,000 sticks felt GREAT.

Not only did I 100% this game, I also got the Platinum. Most of the work towards the Platinum will come naturally as you try to complete everything, though there are a few additional things that don't count towards that in-game completion number. There's an "Ultimate Match" section added to the menu after completing the story that's filled with challenges to complete, ranging from basic "defeat all the enemies within the time limit" taken from the base game, to more elaborate combat and chase sequences.

You also need to replay the game (there's a trophy for beating the game on the hardest difficulty, which for me meant I needed to play the game a total of three times) so that was pretty time-consuming, though with imported items and fully upgraded characters my subsequent runs through the game were much faster, despite the higher difficulty on paper. In case you were curious, my second playthrough took about 12 hours, though I was rewatching cutscenes and did a substory or two (and, uh, played over an hour of mahjong). I was able to run through this game in a little over four hours when I didn't do any substories or side content (and when I made a point to skip through the cutscenes and dialogue sequences as much as possible).

And here's proof I have the Platinum.

The only thing in this game I didn't engage with was the Haruka's Trust system, but because I got Haruka to an S-rank in Yakuza 3 (and similarly spent a lot of time with her in the first two games) I felt I didn't need to spend any time mucking about with that here. It only opens up in the post-game and I frankly just didn't see much point in spending time in "Premium Adventure" since I'd already done everything else the game had to offer. 

I really enjoyed this. It took me a lot longer than I anticipated (and not just because I spent a lot of time in the back half doing substories and minigames) but I'm satisfied with how it all wrapped up and overall I had a great time. The new characters are good additions, there are some good twists in the story, and it ends things in an interesting place that has me excited to see Yakuza 5. 

With that being said, it may be some time before I get to Yakuza 5. I think I might take some time away from this series again as this one was, well, a lot. Beyond that, I have a couple other games I intend to play before I get to 5, as my release-order-oriented brain wants me to see everything Yakuza-related during this time and that means I'm not skipping the other spinoffs. 

Kurohyou, here I come (whenever I get to it, that is).