Yakuza 5 is an anthology series.

Episode 1 - Kazuma Kiryu
“Suicidal Pedestrian Kart”
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The citizens of Nagasugai are desperate to die! It is your job to thwart the morbid plans of the populace while lawfully delivering your passengers!


Episode 2 - Taiga Saejima
“Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts: Sapporo Edition feat. Weapon Distribution Santa”
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Eat tripe, learn what a Marten is, and giggle every time Saejima says “Baba-chan”!


Episode 3 - Haruka Sawamura
“Harukatsune Miku”
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Sing and dance as you learn to stand up for yourself, but also repeat things back to authority figures verbatim and follow countless instructions without any error or deviation of any kind!


Episode 4 - Shun Akiyama
“Inept Businessman Simulator: Osaka Expansion”
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Spend very little time establishing a new office because there’s so much DANCING and KICKING to do!


Episode 5 - Tatsuo Shinada
“Brothel Baseball Chocobo Racer”
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Whack balls, race chickens, and write smut to get out of CRIPPLING DEBT!


Episode 6 - All
"Yakuzavengers: Homecoming"
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Probably the most baffling, nonsensical climax of any Yakuza game so far, but that doesn't stop it from being hype!

dreams are big, and subtext is for cowards

have you ever wanted to be a taxi driver? what about a bear hunter? what about an idol? what about a guy who has money?? what about a ex baseball pro??? well guess what! with yakuza 5, your dreams (wink) canm come true!!!!!!

yakuza 5 does have some littol flaws that keep it from being a 5/5 for me, such as the encounter rate which made me want to have an encounter with falling off the side of a cliff :3 there's some plot issues but tbh they are not so bad that they bring down the game much, if at all, for me.

the new characters make me ascend higher than the highest highs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! takasugi and shinada 4 lyfe <333333 i think also this game in the series is one of the first to really dig deep into self reflection, and using dreams (wink) to showcase characters flaws and goals in such a beautiful way oh my god, very good very well done rgg i love u

i also think the antags are very good and i'm so happy that yakuza 5 did not fall into the same tropes that have been going on for 4 games in a row. good job yakuza 5

yakuza 5's themes are dreamlike (wink), i think they really do well at weaving the protagonists stories together, and make the finale section of the game genuinely superb writing. there's something so special about these larger than life characters, who often times literally and metaphorically explode off the screen, have wishes that are so human. dreams (wink) are so big and huge, yet the humans wanting them are so small, but can still be a constant inspiration for those around them

yume think i'm exaggerating, but i wouldn't dream of it, this game is sheer peak, and i cannot wait for more of the story to come <3

I have now beaten every mainline Yakuza game, finally!

After the writing team came down from whatever the fuck they were smoking when they made 4, they decided to try writing a real story again, and I'm glad to say they succeeded. Shinada's part felt a bit like a standalone expansion, but the way it ties into the finale makes sense enough. Felt like they just wanted a baseball subplot tbh but it wasn't bad or anything lol

That said, I still fucking hate Yakuza bosses. The first 2 in the finale were fine, the 3rd was pretty bad and the 4th is just awful, put a sour taste on the whole finale, but whatever.

Okay seriously brief now: All 4 parts are good in their own right but some chapters exist only to waste your time and the pacing in some early ones is abysmal. Looking at the game as a whole, it is definitely good, I'll remember it fondly I think.

P.S. Haruka's parts are by far the best, no random encounters or shoddy bosses, raises the entire game's score alone.

This game is weird, it's too long, it's too slow and it's certainly almost too big for a yakuza game.

At the same time this game offers the kind of scale, build up and payoff no other entry does. I am genuinely mindblown by how many good characters it had after Yakuza 4, and every returning one hits their peak what more could a lad ask for.

I have a few gripes with the gameplay and story but they don't matter a lot in the big scale. Not to mention this is the hardest a yakuza game focuses on its themes and my god does it nail them

Two months ago, I finished Lost Judgment. I started Yakuza 5 back in the third week of August, and it’s now December. I took a break from Yakuza intentionally, so I’d be fresh for Lost Judgment and so I could let Y5 breathe a little. As a result, it feels like I’ve been playing this behemoth of a game for my entire life. As befitting of the game, this review is going to be very long, I expect. But, in short, one of RGG Studio’s crowning achievements and a great experience overall. Spoilers ahead.

I’m going to tackle this by chapter, since that makes the most sense. So, first up: Kiryu. This game starts off a lot more cinematic than maybe any other game in the series, or even Judgment. There’s a lengthy cutscene showing Suzuki / Kiryu’s daily routine from waking up, seeing his girlfriend(!?), going to work at the taxi company, and finishing out the day at a ramen shop. It’s incredibly well-done, and sets up the idea of each chapter as its own individual story. The framing for Kiryu is great - separated from Haruka and the other kids for an unknown reason, arguably at his lowest point. IMO this very intentional pacing goes a long way in making this game hit home. It’s not present in every character’s section, but it does a great job differentiating this from the rest of the series, especially Yakuza 4. Kiryu’s story is compelling, with him trying to avoid the responsibility of helping the Tojo after seeing Daigo, and then avoiding the Tojo guys that investigate Daigo’s disappearance. It introduces Watase, who’s a very fun character and one of the stronger Omi guys in the series. Kiryu’s section features two great fight sequences: the rather good fight in the branch Omi office and the absolutely incredible and infamous Kiryu vs 100 Tojo officers. What a great way to cap off his section.

Every character in Yakuza 5 has their own bespoke minigame tailored to their story. Kiryu’s is taxi driving and taxi racing. The game actually breaks these up into two parts, “story” and “side” missions. In Kiryu’s case, the story is about taxi racing, and the side is about taxi driving. I found the latter honestly pretty aggravating, and I couldn’t be bothered to do more than the introductory one, but the former is great fun. RGG managed to make a serviceable driving physics engine, relatively similar to Mario Kart, once you get to know it. The story of this section is quite good, and it cemented my intention to do the sidestories for each character.

Kiryu’s location is Nagasugai, and it’s probably in my top 3 or 4 locations in the series. It’s well-realized, pretty big, and feels different from Kamurocho. It also feels graphically impressive, and is a real step up from Y4’s Kamurocho. The ramen minigame is super fun (even if I only did it once), and it just feels like a lived-in city. Collecting the garbage is a funny little way to bring that home, even if the garbage is just the same shine effect for every ground thing in the series. Overall, Kiryu’s section feels like a mini Yakuza game. If you had just packaged it for $25 with all the substories and content in the city and ended it after the final fight, I’d be alright with it.

Saejima’s section starts off terribly, repeating the prison sequence from Yakuza 4 for no real good reason other than the plot demands that Saejima be back in prison. It’s a scary prospect and worried me that the game was about to nosedive in quality, and, while it does for a few minutes with the minutiae of prison fetch quests and nothing but uninteresting dialogue, the prison sequence is far better than Yakuza 4’s, and serves a much better purpose. Saejima’s escape with Baba is a terrific portion of the game, and leads to the bear and the mountain. The arc of Saejima helping look after Baba and investigate the town is excellent and aside from the next chapter, one of the bigger departures from the norm that the series has ever done. You have a very small “city” part with the village and a larger open world with the mountain, and that’s it. It feels claustrophobic and open, and Saejima is even more of an outsider than usual. One minor complaint I have about this section though is actually in its localization. For anyone aware of Hokkaido history / culture, the village is clearly a Matagi village, bear hunting and animal worship included. In fact, they SAY Matagi at one point (either Saejima or a villager), but the localized subtitles cut it out, and just refer to them as “ritualistic hunters” or some such thing. I get that when Yakuza 5 first came out, there was still the belief that gamers in the west didn’t care about Japanese culture or history, and the game itself almost didn’t release, sure. But this is Yakuza 5 Remastered, released in 2019, and the team did go back and make changes to the script in other locations, so it’s very disappointing that they left this cultural tidbit unknown to people who don’t speak Japanese. Putting that aside, I love this section and the hunting minigame. Again, I only did the main story and not the side ones (which are more like hunting substories, really), but going up against Yama-oroshi is really satisfying and the gameplay of the hunting is quite well done. I lost about a week to just playing an hour or so of that a night. Saejima’s actual plot-relevant section in Tsukimino is pretty forgettable, as is the stuff with Baba. Tsukimino is a bit weaker as a location than Nagasugai, IMO. The mountain is so weird and fresh by comparison to everything else in the entire series that Tsukimino’s relatively standard layout is a bit less interesting. The pervading snow and Christmas feel is a nice touch, as is the snow festival, but I just didn’t find myself getting too attached to it on the whole. Combat-wise, Saejima is a bit more interesting than he was in 4, although he quickly becomes completely OP with the Herculean Strength ability, which renders him immune to all flinching and interruptions when he’s in heat mode. It makes every boss afterwards a bit of a joke, honestly. Otherwise he’s got more cool double finishers and charged moves, plus the ability to pick up big stuff and swing people around. His heat actions are pretty brutal. Both he and Kiryu are absolute demons in this game, you genuinely feel for the random goons they dispatch.

Haruka’s section is probably the single best “chapter” in the studio’s history. What an incredible stroke of genius it was to take the relatively rote formula expected of a Yakuza game (beating up dudes, running around town, etc.) and completely turn it on its head with a character that the audience has developed a bond with over multiple games. To get mechanical for a second, it just goes to show how ingrained certain parts of the yakuza formula were by this point that by the simple act of removing them you get some really fresh perspective. Haruka being able to explore Sotenbori and do stuff at her own pace without running into punks every 8 seconds is such a minor thing but it adds so much. Haruka’s idol training is brutally fun, including both the surprising variety of side stuff and her mainline Princess League story with its rhythm game gameplay. And it’s not just fun, it’s a very smart twist on the perspectives of the main characters. Much in the same way that it worked for Judgment with Yagami as an outsider to yakuza struggles, Haruka is not going down the path of the Tojo Clan. Her perspective and approach to the world is vastly different from Kiryu and the gang’s. Her story is interesting, too. The characters introduced in this section are some of the best in the game, and the twists and turns of the chapter are exciting. Mirei Park is a fascinating character, and her connection to the broader story is both surprising and clever. And then Haruka’s section gets even better! Akiyama comes into the fold! Some people complain about his inclusion being too minor, but I disagree. Akiyama lends such a grounded personality to any scene he’s in, and acting as Haruka’s guardian (especially when things kick off) is a great bit of fanservice and character building. Akiyama is, notably, a slacker and something of a ladies’ man. Having him buck up and protect Haruka when it’s necessary is a great bit of growth - arguably better than some of the other mainstays of the series have ever gotten. Haruka is a badass in her own right, this section makes that plenty clear. She lives on her own in Sotenbori, works and trains really hard, and takes no shit from anyone. The part where Katsuya explains to Kanai that Haruka is essentially a hardened yakuza from her years around Kiryu, Ryuji, Nishiki, etc. is fantastic.

Shinada is super weird. He’s obviously the odd one out in terms of his connection to the story and because he’s the only new character. I was sort of ready to be underwhelmed by his section but it’s pretty good overall! It focuses a bit less on the yakuza politics and little more on the individual story of Shinada, which is compelling. His side activity is sort of meh, but it’s not terrible. I wish he had had a real baseball minigame, but I think that’s something in Y6? Shinada’s part is quite funny, and Takasugi, the lender that hounds Shinada for the length of it, is a really great character. The details of the Nagoya family were lost on me a little bit, if I have to be honest, the game refers to a bunch of people by name several times and I had forgotten who they were. Shinada’s weapon trainer is fantastic, Ayanokoji is a funny guy with some really fun fights and a hilarious arc. Shinada’s city, Kineicho, is probably the weakest in the game, lacking the quality worldbuilding and layout of Nagasugai and also lacking the definitively different vibe of Tsukimino. Ultimately it kind of just feels like a mini Kamurocho, which is in turn a little disappointing since you’ll be in Kamurocho in a couple hours for the finale.

The finale is weird. Firstly, it’s 5 chapters long, so it’s like multiple finales wrapped together. The first ones are basically just giving the context for why each character comes back to Kamurocho, which means that Kiryu’s first chapter is like 8 minutes long. Shinada and Akiyama meet up, which is cute. The 3rd chapter finale is the first real one, with the big rooftop fight between Saejima, Kiryu, and Watase and Katsuya. I really like this fight and the leadup to it, just very stupid meathead stuff, reminiscent of 2’s ending. The part afterwards is pretty bad, however. Maybe the weakest cutscene in the whole game, where Kurosawa’s plan is revealed and Y4’s gun shenanigans return as every person on the planet shows up on this roof to shoot each other. It sucks. But then the real finale starts once Shinada is brought into the fold of the main gang. The finale finale is pretty darn good, IMO. RGG does the smart thing and switches between several perspectives throughout it, giving us a bird’s eye view of what’s going on in Kamurocho. The first cutscene is EXCELLENT - Kiryu and Akiyama fighting outside the Millennium Tower is a real highlight. To get negative for a second, Y5’s final bosses are all… mediocre. Saejima’s fight is just Majima, which at least is explained sort of okay by the game (it’s still pretty dumb though), but it’s not an interesting fight. Shinada’s fight is thematically interesting, as he and Baba are very different people. Baba is running from the responsibility of his treason against multiple people and grappling with his past while looking to give up on his future. On the other hand, Shinada has never shied away from responsibility, and cannot abide Baba’s threat against Haruka, even if he doesn’t go through with it. It’s a pretty dull fight though, since this is the 3rd or 4th time you fight Baba and he doesn’t make for a fun antagonist for Shinada’s moveset. Akiyama’s final fight is awesome from a context perspective, with an all-timer cutscene after it, but the fight itself is dull as hell. Kanai is a boring character to have be the final boss and his gameplay is just lame. Not very hard but not very fun. Then… Aizawa. The guy who really shouldn’t be the final boss. His fight is, again, very cool from a setting and QTE standpoint, but it’s not that cool narratively and I found it absurdly easy. Playing this game on normal was perhaps a mistake as Kiryu’s upgraded tiger drop shreds Aizawa at insane speed. The final scenes are interspersed with Haruka’s moments on stage, as the whole finale has been. After the fight with Aizawa, Haruka reveals her intent to quit the idol biz. While I really don’t have the problems that some people do with her decision making and choice here, I think it was a missed opportunity from a gameplay perspective. They already made the effort to overlap Haruka’s last song with the final fight, so they really should’ve made it a playable rhythm section. Haruka is the only protagonist that doesn’t get a “final boss” and I think the game suffers for it. I’m sure it would’ve pissed the people who disliked her gameplay off even more, but I don’t care. The after credits cutscene is nice, and seeing Haruka and Kiryu reunited after the whole game apart is great, although I felt like a full 5-protag final cutscene might’ve been more effective.

To give some broader thoughts on the story, I think it’s alright. It’s quite strong in the individual pre-finale chapters as a mystery, slowly unwinding on this unknowable plan. It builds like this throughout the game and then just… sort of… stops. The game more or less ties up every detail, but it ultimately just comes down to “a guy wanted to take over / crush the Tojo and Omi(?)” and doesn’t get much more interesting than that. The bigger picture stuff with Park, Majima, and Katsuya is not so much a new thread but a get out of jail free card. Majima doesn’t refer to Park or Katsuya in the ending, so it basically just served the purpose of setup and tying up the loose ends of “why did that guy do that?” instead of making any real meaningful addition. On the whole, I felt like each individual chapter was better than the finale, and the slow drip of plot content in those chapters was pretty effective - Kiryu finding out about the Omi and Majima, Saejima hearing about Majima and getting expelled from the Tojo, Haruka being let in on Park’s past and Katsuya’s ambitions(?) with Akiyama at her side, and Shinada hanging out with Daigo. Those individual stories are probably better than the sort of disappointing Kurosawa and Aizawa team that ends the game, but that’s okay. Yakuza 5 is essentially a collection of 4 separate games and stories with a broader interconnected plot and I’m alright with the broader one being just whelming. It felt like there were several moments where a cutscene could’ve been added to help sell various parts of the finale, but I imagine that at a certain point RGG just wanted this behemoth of a game to be done, so that’s fine.

Quick bullet points of other positives that don’t fit into any section: Taiko no Tatsujin!!!! The photography guy! The chef guy (who is a real professional chef)! Santa Saejima! The karaoke options! The Akiyama dance battles! Shrimp Shinada! The substories are really good!

I know I’ve forgotten tons of stuff. This is a MASSIVE game, almost to its detriment, and it’s a given that I can’t mention everything. I have no idea what my final time ended up being because the suspend feature on PS5 breaks the gametime tracking in the Remastered Collection, but I’m sure it was upwards of 70 hours. Despite that, I ended up getting only ~32% completion. Insane.

This is the game that essentially closed out Yakuza as a massive, multi-character experiment and led directly to the end of Kiryu’s story (through both 0 and 6), and what a way to go out. There are parts of the overarching story that don’t land perfectly, sure, but the individual stories do work. The oddities of the universe are the best handled they’ve ever been, the writing is consistently funny. It’s ambitious, maybe even dangerously so, but it succeeds on those ambitions 9/10 times. It wormed its way into my brain and has some of the best character moments in the series, as well as remarkably solid gameplay from start to finish. Not to mention the absurd scale of the content available. I may have been a little all over the place in this review, but I want to be clear that this game was like a drug for me for 3 months and I think it’s excellent. I ended up making a lot of memories with this game, oddly mostly about food. We had salads one night after I started Kiryu's section, I played Saejima's hunting section nightly while we worked through this gigantic cake someone bought us, and we had tacos from this new place on the night I finished it. It's weird how you can attach memories to parts of games like that, but it really does add something to the experience. Overall, one of the strongest efforts in the series, and easily my favorite mainline entry, just ahead of Yakuza 3.

Up next: Ryu Ga Gotoku Ishin!

There was like one section I didn't like much and it was just Saejima's. That's really it.

Other than that, I only have good things to say.

The final boss for every character was great, especially Kiryu's. That final segment showing the bond between Kiryu and Haruka was so good.

Saejima, Akiyama, and Shinada 🐐

Especially Shinada, his story had me engrossed and I almost teared up a few times.

Anyways, it's a great game, definitely one of the better ones in the series

It's by no means perfect, and this game has almost too much fan service, but boy is it good. You can tell this was meant to be the swan song for the series with how jampacked full of shit Yakuza 5 is, graphically it's a big upgrade on the previous two games, and the combat is arguably the best it's ever been with 4 great characters to play as, and one rhythm minigame. A typical Yakuza story with twist and turns galore, it still somehow keeps itself feeling fresh throughout and the new characters introduced in this game are some of the best in the series.

It's by far the longest entry, but if you're a Yakuza fan you're gonna love this one and while I can't put it in my top 5, boy does it come close.

DREAM BIG
Everyone has that one game where you just start playing it, and somehow the hours fly by. This happened to me with Yakuza 5. I booted up the game, went “I’ll play for about an hour or so before I log off tonight”. Then I look at the clock and two hours are gone. Yakuza 5 is an immensely entertaining and polished experience, and I hope this review will entice you to try it out eventually.
I’m still trying to process the story of this game. Out of the five entries I’ve played thus far, this one is super convoluted and has many, many things happening at once, which means that this game’s story has earned its divisive nature among fans. Tie that with the fact that this is easily the longest game in the series so far, and it sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Personally… I’m very mixed on this. I like my games a bit shorter (normally clocking in around the 20 hour mark), but I’m not opposed to a lengthier title if it makes worthy use of its play time. Yakuza 5, for the most part, earns its longer length by having a variety of gameplay styles and gimmicks to keep itself from getting stale.
What I admire the most about the story of Yakuza 5 is the main message it contains: Dreams. Everyone has dreams, and how we accomplish them comes in many different shapes and sizes. I love the emphasis several characters have about carrying on the dreams of those who are gone, it gives the plot a very personal feeling to it, and I hope all people who play this game take at least something away from what the game is trying to tell you.
What mainly sells the expanded plot of Yakuza 5 is its characters. Kiryu, like Yakuza 2 is once again pushed to new limits emotionally, and this is furthered by his dynamic with Haruka. Saejima focuses more on his prison buddies and relationship with Majima, while Akiyama is once again being his Akiyama self and helping the troubled in need. The big hit with this game is our new character, the retired baseball star Shinada, as he deals with the seemingly sadistic but secretly caring loan shark Takasugi. The dynamic between these two is excellent, and I really love how they play off one another as Shinada discovers what really happened behind the big incident he was involved in all those years back. Shinada well earned his place as one of the most popular characters in the series, and he’s definitely up there for me.
But of course, what is a Yakuza game without mentioning its ass kickin’ combat? Returning from the last game we have Kiryu, Saejima, and Akiyama back, each of them feeling much better to use and more versatile than before. Our newest brawler is Shinada, with a unique play style that is creative by utilizing elements of his past job in entertaining ways. Yakuza 5 EASILY has the best combat in the series, and it’s personally on par with the second game for me. The enemy AI is more aggressive, but that incentivizes smart play with even the most basic of foes. The physics are pitch perfect, and the combat in general has a nice flow to it. While not as arcadelike as Yakuza 2, this game regardless has very fun and rewarding combat that just makes me ready for the next battle. What about the fifth play style, you ask? Well, it’s Haruka! Instead of being a brawler (although admittedly that would’ve been awesome LOL), Haruka gets to play a rhythm minigame by having “dance battles” with other dancers in the streets. It’s a simple minigame, probably so people who are more so in it for the brawling don’t have to play a frustratingly complex or difficult rhythm game alternatively.
However, that’s only one side of the coin when it comes to gameplay in Yakuza 5. The game contains several alternate gameplay modes in the side stories. Kiryu gets two different Taxi Driver modes, one being a pretty realistic one where you must follow the rules of the road, with the other being a crazy taxi-esque race on the highways. Saejima gets to go hunting in the cold wilderness, and Haruka has several pop idol events she must attend. And lastly, Shinada gets to show off his batting skills at the range. I can’t stress enough how nice all of these modes are, they add a lot of content to the game and in true Yakuza series fashion, are all deep and enjoyable in their own right.
Aside from the PS2 games, this is my favorite visual style in the series. Character proportions are a bit better, the lighting of cutscenes and areas is a big improvement, and generally the game looks SUPER nice to look at, especially for a 2012 PS3 game. All five districts offered have their own kinda aesthetic and vibe to them which adds to the variety aspect of the game. The remaster also has this game run at 60fps, which makes this absolutely stellar presentation even 10 years later.
The soundtrack is no doubt fantastic. While it doesn’t hit the same highs as Y1-3 for me personally, I think it’s an improvement over 4, offering alot of variety for each character. I’ll have to give it a bit more of a listen to get full thoughts on this OST, but it’s great nonetheless
Yakuza 5 is RGG studios giving it their all to make a large and memorable video game experience, offering a boat load of content, a fantastic story, great presentation, and satisfying combat. You can really tell that the team behind this one had a realized vision, and put everything into making this the Yakuza game to top them all. This game isn’t perfect, far from it, but at the same time I feel like the 10/10 rating I gave it is earned. This is easily one of my favorite games of all time and I’ve even considered the possibility of 100%ing this game someday. If you consider yourself a fan of the Yakuza series, you owe it to yourself to finish this one, no if, ands, or buts. Next up I will be playing the ever so popular Yakuza 0, and I’ve been looking forward to this one. I hope it lives up to the massive hype train it’s gained for the past few years, that’s for sure.
Never Give Up.

an impressive study on what makes yakuza tick. crosses a line that the other ps3 titles wouldn’t dare to even tread near. each character is pushed to their absolute limits, placing them under a stern spotlight that shakes the audience’s hearts incessantly. its length is often criticized but realistically demonstrates what a pure, fully thought-out yakuza experience looks like. every part is given their own respective time to shine in full.

where yakuza 5 succeeds is not in the grandiose scope of its overarching narrative (though i do like it better than the previous two titles), rather in the intimate character moments - kiryu’s stoicism against mayumi’s passion, saejima intently conversing with his cellmate recluses, park & haruka’s heart-to-hearts, shinada clashing with familiar faces from yesteryear - the series’ writing is at its peak here. there’s some real thought provoking analysis on each of our protagonists. truly feels like the whole team gave it their all in coordinating the entire experience to insure it felt balanced and emotionally rousing. this is the ultimate blend of every strength this series holds. and fortunately it doesn’t feature a climax that puts the entire narrative’s quality into question.

some other positives i can’t highlight enough would be the gameplay and sheer scope of everything. the combat is some of the most fun i’ve had since 2; i especially enjoy the frequent brawls filled with massive clusters of enemies. i thought they were formidable tests of your skills, almost feeling like a musou at points with how it demands precise spacial awareness to minimize damage taken. wandering around the new and old recontextualized cities in the new engine was just as immersive as it was for me when i sank into 1 & 2’s thick metropolises. something about them here feels more polished than in 3 or 4.

nothing gets left out, nothing is undercooked, and most importantly everything is impactful. i absolutely love the finale and how it wraps up everyone’s characters. kiryu’s final moments are some bone-chilling stuff. yakuza 5 is the quintessential embodiment of what this series stands for.

This is by far one of the best Yakuza games and one of my favorites in this series. I consider Yakuza 5 to be the embodiment of everything that makes the Yakuza series great. There are so many twists and turns that kept me engaged through out the whole thing. I was completely hooked from beginning to end and I loved it.

This game has 5 cities to explore, the most in any Yakuza game, and they’re all packed with hilarious or emotional sub stories. Combat and graphics are also greatly improved on from the previous games.

It's a less refined and focused experience than Yakuza 0, which is my absolute favorite in this series, but does a lot of unique things from a series standpoint that has not been replicated since. And no matter what people say, Saejima's story was very interesting and fun to go through and I enjoyed that they included Haruka as a playable character. While I can see that some may be turned off by Haruka's story, being that it is rhythm game oriented, I thoroughly enjoyed it and felt that, for what it was, they did a great job.

Overall, If you're a Yakuza fan, you will be doing yourself a disservice by not playing this amazing game, because it reminded me again why the Yakuza franchise is one of my absolute favorites.

On a sidenote, after Yakuza 5 I'm even more disappointed that the series switched to boring turn-based combat.

Now this is a Yakuza game!

This feels to me like a more perfected version of Yakuza 4. Almost everything I didn't like about this game has been severely scaled back or removed entirely, leaving a peak Yakuza experience just before 0, the legacy game that you probably shouldn't start with yet everyone does anyway. Once again, multiple protagonists, and I'm gonna rank em.

Part 1: Kiryu is great

The story starts with Kiryu in Fukuoka, taking up a job as a taxi driver while Haruka is off following her dream. As is expected at this point, some bullshit relating to the Tojo's struggles appears at Kiryu's doorstep and he needs to rejoin the Yakuza to get to the bottom of it. Daigo goes missing in the middle of a power struggle in the Omi Alliance, and the plot is Kiryu piecing things together. It's great, especially seeing Kiryu learn to handle a new life away from the orphanage. As well as that, the taxi minigame is great too! It's basically that joke of 'play GTA but act like a regular citizen' and it's great stuff (minus those suicidal pedestrians like what is up with them) as well as the drag races that occur later on, with all the characters of Kiryu's taxi service being likable characters. Like with 4, 10/10 opening, I loved it. But now we go back to Saejima, yayyyyy...

Part 1: Wait, Saejima's good now?

Saejima's story is about him breaking out of prison (again) It's more interesting than 4, and like Kiryu, it's cool learning about the other inmates. There is some weird pacing with the imagination segments, but it's fine, I guess it's the only way they could fit in combat. Speaking of which, Saejima has fun combat now! He has armour on a lot of his attacks, as well as a larger health pool, actually conveying through gameplay that this is a big man not to be fucked with. But after you escape, you end up in a mountain village, in a sequence of walking through snow and shitty hunting tutorials, and if you were in a Discord server with me, you know I didn't enjoy, especially when hunting and trapping were two separate tutorials that really could have been one. But after that, you get to Sapporo! And my god, a city with side content? Saejima sidequests? Not getting chased down by the cops? It's all I ever wanted! But anyway, while the main plot does become an annoying fetch quest for a bit, it's still super fun to play as Saejima. His section gets a 7/10, the first half is still kinda lame.

Part 3: Wait, this is critical path content?

The next stage is Haruka, now trying to become an Idol. So naturally, this is a rhythm game now. At first, I was into it. The streets are littered with dance battles you can do, and the minigame was kinda fun. But it gets repetitive real fast. A lot of the game is training for the princess league, with you doing the routine of the same songs over and over, alongside some boring side stuff like greeting fans and interviews, so I did end up skipping basically all the side content here. But the story is good. Haruka's staff are all good characters, and it does add enough backstory and intrigue to the main plot that I was invested. One thing I will say is how docile Haruka is now. She was never super aggressive, but she did have a backbone and some of Kiryu's stronger tendencies clearly rubbed off on her in previous games, like when she slapped Mine in Yakuza 3 and did everything she could to protect the orphans. But now? She just kind of accepts shit from rivals like t-set. I get she has to act professional, but even an internal monologue of 'Yo, FUCK these bitches!' would have gone a long way. But overall, I'd give the whole act a 6/10. But regardless, she shares her act with another character, which leads me to...

Part 4: I FUCKING LOVE SHUN AKIYAMA!!!!!!!!

Shun Akiyama opens a branch of his money lending business in Osaka, where Haruka's plot is going down. So he lends his aid to the squad, piecing together the plot as he goes. And he's still a legend, basically everything I loved about him in 4 remains, now with aerial combat because RGG studios knew they weren't beating the Sanji allegations so just rolled with it. But he adds a great deal to Haruka's plot as he figures out the mysteries of her agency. 10/10 again, this guy's a legend.

Part 5: Hey, a new guy

The new character here is Shinada, a former baseball player forced to quit, learning there was some shady business behind what went down in his life. He's a funny guy, a constantly broke loser who makes money by getting laid a bunch (I mean doesn't sound too bad) while fighting more with weapons (I cheesed so much shit with the infinite durability pole you have no idea) his side thing is a baseball sidequest which I didn't bother with, but his plot is fun. All about teaming up with the people he owes money to to uncover the conspiracy behind his baseball career and how it ties into the main plot. 9/10, he's great.

Part 6: You tried your best with that finale, guys.

So, all the parties come together, the plots in motion. It's time to finish this.
The finale actually starts strong, with everyone getting together in Kamorocho and heading out to stop the villain's scheme, with only the rooftop plot point being really dumb (It's a rooftop with no camera, just wait and bait him out, dumbasses) before the finale. Akiyama, Saejima, and Shinada all get decent final boss fights, but the main villain turns out to be unable to fight, working to give his gains to the TRUE final boss...who I barely remembered. Hell, when Kiryu confronts him and asks what he's doing, he responds with 'I don't know'. even the game knows it's an asspull, but you confront him...and then watch a jpop performance...then you fight him. And the fights pretty good, the narrative weight just isn't really there. 8/10

So overall, it's pretty damn good. Next up is the last of the Kiryu saga (and Gaiden but that seems to be Yakuza 6.5) so I'm looking forward to that

It's not Kiryover yet. Look, he brought back two of his friends as leads, they really gonna believe they Like A Dragon at this rate. Yay I made the jokes at the start and subverted expectations let's get right into the meat no balls out. The year... is... I can't keep up, but that fella Shinada reminded me right at the end with his baseball sob story: we're in year 17 after A. N (I make it sound like Nishiki is Jesus), Kiryu is having his mid-life crisis (again) and Haruka is having her rebellious teen phase. Not rly she's a doll, maybe too much so (not my Haruka 😤), point is she packed her things and left a bunch of kids in the care of... huh, in my head they're taken care of by Mikio but my main issue with Yakuza is how important and likeable characters just vanish after one entry. Yakuza 0 Will Change Everything.

It took me almost as long to finish the game than the time Saejima spent in jail! Unlike him, I won't do my time twice. It's cute that they make you believe Majima died off-screen for so long. I kind of wish they kept that lie up to then follow the game with Majima as the protagonist of 0. Would it change anything for me, late Yakuza bloomer? No, I just crave chaos. If I wanted peace, I'd play Haruka dancing and singing for a good chunk of the game. Mayhaps I'd rope Akiyama into dancing some more.

There are a few awesome boss fights, but I feel confident in saying the combat has only been in a downward slope since 3. The final boss of the game is the worst fight in the series so far, and I do not say those words lightly. Shame, because it's a good character that ended up butchered by every aspect of the game it seems, right at the end. They sure like their twists, and add a few loose ends to the mix. All for what? Another ending where Kiryu seemingly dies? That shit lowkey hilarious I hope it happens again next time.

So many new locations, though. Yakuza is taking us for a grand tour of Japan. From beating up bears with garbage, to a giant Hatsune Miku snowoman... 💯

it’s insane how each entry in this series just keeps getting better and better. this game tells an utterly massive story, with so many different plot threads that all somehow come together perfectly to create my favorite ending so far. Yakuza 5 is a story about what it means to pursue a dream, what it means to pass on that dream, and what it means not to give up. presented absolutely beautifully, somehow we’ve reached new heights in a series that already soars to those of the highest sky scrapers. I couldn’t begin to organize all of my thoughts on this game— it’s one of the biggest i’ve played in my life. It’s worth every second of it though, there really isn’t a truly bad moment here. the best iteration of the combat so far in the series, and as mentioned, an absolutely wonderful story. I have no further notes… it was kino

Yakuza 5 is big.

My first playthrough of Yakuza 0 clocked about 90 hours. Yakuza Kiwami 60 hours, Kiwami 2 80 hours, Yakuza 4 about 40. This one (admittedly reaching 90% completion) was 126 hours. I imagine rushing through still takes about 40-50 hours. Its just beefy.

The extensive side content in the game really hammers home the sheer girth of the game. There's five cities, five characters, all with different side stories and gimmicks. Kiryu's side content involves an extensive racing game and taxi quest. Saejima's adventure involves elaborate hunting mechanics. Haruka deals with her idol career, Akiyama gets some stories involving his cabaret club, and Shinada relives his baseball glory days. These stories reflect the characters nicely and add layers to the journey they're on. Combined with different training masters, different coliseum ranking achievements, different city wide collectibles... its daunting to think about the sheer effort and polish put into this game.

With that in mind, the size works against the game. The storyline works best when these character stories are kept separate. Kiryu's efforts to stay yakuza free and Shinada's lost baseball dreams are excellent standalone adventures. Saejima's story ties deep in the main narrative, which means its pace has significant stumbles compared to other slow narratives. Haruka's adventure is efficient enough at detailing the idol industry, but the overarching story doesn't do her or Akiyama any favors. By the final chapters, when all these stories collide into each other, its really hard to keep track of all the information you have to balance. There's too many warring factions. Too many conspiracies. I can't be expected to remember the betrayals in act one when act one was 80 hours ago.

Meanwhile, Haruka's chapter has its own major flaws. Yakuza never really commits to any one answer about its themes. The ambiguity helps the series. When the story involves the hierarchies of the idol industry, that ambiguity gets frustrating. They can't keep vaguely dancing around this theme of "oh, these industry ruins women's lives, everyone's phony and miserable, its run by criminals, its awful to work here" and then come up with the answer: "but its WORTH IT to give people DREAMS." Tear the industry down with your fists. You've let me do that for other organizations, let me do it here.

Shinada's story is my favorite though. The entire game is about Dreams and it doesn't let you forget it. But Shinada's story focusing on what happens when you've been abandoned by your dream. When you couldn't hack it because of factors out of your control. Its a more relatable theme than the aspiring dreams of previous acts. You want to see this dumb boy get his life back together, whatever that life may be. Its a breath of fresh air.

The gameplay, as always, is delightful. Each character has their own fighting style and it works well for their characters. Kiryu and Saejima are unbeatable, while Akiyama has to struggle a bit more. Shinada, being a civilian, does a better job relying on weaponry than he does on his fists. It provides nice variety and encourages you to experiment with different playstyles.

Overall, Yakuza 5 is... bizarrely a comfort game. Its just so easy to drop into it and get lost in its huge world. It can very quickly wear out its welcome by the final act, but I just let myself ride its stupid wave, indulging in fishing minigames and gambling casinos and living a relaxed yakuza life. Yakuza 0 may be the franchise peak, but 5 feels like the platonic ideal for the franchise is on the average. Polished, charming, and stuffed with content to get lost in.

Yakuza 5 is perhaps the game I'm always most excited to see new fans get to. The amount of stuff there is in this game is staggering, 5 protagonists sharing 4 different areas and extensive multi-hour side stories along with all the other activities you'd expect at this point in the series. One of my favorites here is the new character Shinada, which ignoring my bias as a baseball fan has a fighting style focused on weapons and grabs that brings a new fresh flavor to the combat and makes the weapons more than just gimmicks and portable heat moves. Compared to Yakuza 4 in other areas, from visuals to animation and how seamless different parts of the game can connect together it's a wonder the magic they were able to pull out of the PS3.

Technically finished this on 2/18, but it took me a while to finalize a review.

The pillar of maximalist design in video games, and a shining standard for the RGG studio for years to come. Yakuza 5 feels like an enigma of a title, bizarrely sitting in place of the Yakuza series prior to many other entries and yet standing atop many of these with regards to how imperative this of a moment this is for the series. Even playing a bit of the Judgments, Yakuza 0, other Dragon Engine games, etc. 5 feels like a game changer. It doesn't take long to hear about the insane amount of content and variety that's been sewn throughout Yakuza 5, even compared to other titles, although this begs the question as to how the quality stands. If you saw my Yakuza 4 review you might have an idea that I don't like that game, and you would be correct! However, more than that I felt as though Yakuza 4 trips over many of its ideas- not really knowing where to strike hard and floundering in terribly paced vignettes and a frankly claustrophobic idea for where the franchise should leap to. 4 characters with the same Kamurocho, a plot as shallow as it is nonsensical, and a single handful of neat new ideas that I wanted to interact with. It's known that this project wasn't originally supposed to even involve Kiryu but even so 4 feels like such a troubled title and particularly because over the horizon I knew something else was coming. 5 succeeds so much over the corpse of 4 I'm frankly embarrassed for it. Quality is not sacrificed for quantity in Yakuza 5 and most dips in quality I can brush over. There's a lot to talk about so I figured I'd just divide each portion of thought into the games 5 acts.

Kiryu
Opposite to Yakuza 4, we start out with Kiryu for the game and I think that's an immediate improvement. We also see that he's been placed in a situation much more intriguing than we last saw him, as we've moved to a completely different location, he's taken up a new job, and neither Haruka nor any of the Morning Glory orphans are anywhere to be seen. He's also got an extremely stylish new coat- definitely appreciate the new look. Kiryu's story is overall fine, although I think the biggest boon is just how much Yakuza 5 wants you to know they want to keep you in its embrace, with these fairly long, entirely voiced cutscenes as Kiryu talks with his boss, Nakajima (great character) or other yakuza trying to egg Kiryu out of his hiding. Yakuza 5's plot is... intricate to say the least and it certainly wants you to know it but I can respect how much it wants to feel like its closing its curtains. Lotta cameos and references from the last few game pop up, even in Fukuoka- including a relative to Komaki with Sosuke, Date shows up for a side story questioning what his next steps in life are, and more as the game continues. Despite these returns from the past- Fukuoka still makes for a refreshing vacation from Kamurocho. I don't know if I entirely prefer this or Okinawa with regards to Kiryu locales but it certainly has more side content for people to gorge on. Most of the staples are here, along with a new taxi driving side story with two different playstyles, along with a funky 'trash' collection feature and a whole 'Soba Noodle' minigame, all exclusive to Kiryu's segment here. Kiryu also plays pretty well here, although his ‘Climax Heat Action’ didn't really set in for me until much later in the game (i.e. the Finale).


Saejima
Similar to Yakuza 4 on the other hand, Saejima is our follow up to the first part- and just like last time we have to go through a prison segment. This one isn't nearly as grating as the prior game’s escape but it's probably the slowest paced part of the game, maybe my least favorite segment. That said it's an IMMENSE glow up from his prior appearance; no cop chases in sight, the prison segment doesn’t end in a horrible boss fight, no gross sexual tension with a minor- Saejima just needs to fight bears and have imaging trips of the outside world! Speaking of the latter- I appreciate just how many weird stylistic turns this game takes. There's a whole meditative- inner looking segment in the prison in which we take a trip through Tsukimino and even go on a date with our mental hostess. It's just a bizarre trip to take as it lasts a good 30 minutes and happens twice while you're in the prison, but it's a really neat segment that I don't think the series has done before. We also get quite a bit of insight as to how Saejima plays, and again MAN did they improve upon his moveset. He's still kinda wonky at first but once you upgrade his kit he becomes an immense force, with easily double the health of others with less chance to get staggered. Of course it's also hard not to bring up the whole hunting village and its sidequest, I basically chugged this entire section down when I first arrived but its so astounding. Overall minigame is great, I genuinely can't believe just how much effort all of these sidequests get, with their own side stories and research done to liven up the new locales. I will echo Zapken's point however that the translation doesn't take the opportunity to mention that they’re a Matagi village, which I think would have been a great opportunity to dive in on and talk about this specific section of Japanese human geography.


Haruka/Akiyama
Time and time again we come across the same argument in gaming about 'non-violent' approaches to combat or progression and I do applaud such efforts, even though I generally prefer some kinds of action/combat systems in my games. SMT might have you talking with demons however those systems are a nice compliment to a phenomenal battle system, while Undertale takes a simplistic but effective combat system to contrast the very specific and puzzling ways to converse and befriend your opponents. Non-combat can be quite fun when done in a manner that feels suitable and engaging. So listen, as cool or funny as it might sound to have Haruka take on Yakuza and big swarms of baddies, I genuinely think her main gameplay be these dance battles is such a nice break in the game.
By this point I'm maybe 30-40 hours deep into a game that's known for pretty frequent enemy encounters/pop-ups. It was so goddamn nice to play as a character that could walk around Sotenbori and not be interrupted at ALL, with dance battles just being an optional encounter in fixed locations. Hell, a good bit of Haruka's gameplay is pretty optional, as you can quit at the last minute of the Princess League and the story progresses as normal.

This part also merges with Akiyama's section so the two share Sotenbori and it's actually really neat! It would have been easier for Kiryu and Haruka to have shared a part and maybe have the narrative be like "Haruka and Kiryu move from Kamurocho to Sotenbori, but Kiryu has to distance himself so blah, blah." and "Akiyama travels to Fukuoka to open a new branch of Sky Finance!" but I think Akiyama being the one to meet up and connect with Haruka is actually really neat and connects the two considering their relation to Mirei Park and overall philosophies. The two didn't share but so much screen time (if any i dunno) in Y4, so it's pretty cool when Akiyama's segment just so happens to bump into Haruka's and we can start swapping between multiple characters for the first time. The one thing I'll say about Akiyama is that because his section is merged into another it kinda feels like he gets less overall content comparatively. Each character gets an insane amount of content to go along with each of their parts, and Haruka is different enough to feel like a different game. Akiyama doesn't have much else to fall on for unique minigames or sidequests. I guess if you lump new features into parts rather than character then each part feels fulfilling in that sense bar the Finale, but personally I would have liked each character to have had at least one side game to tinker around with. It doesn't matter too much by the end of the game, although there was a noticeable difference in levels between every other character and Akiyama.

Shinada
Ah. The odd one of this collective. Like Tanimura in the prior game, 5 contains a character with no other appearance outside of this collection and as such I wasn't sure what to expect going into his section. Not only is he the odd one out of the bunch, but he's not Yakuza, he doesn't seem all that influential and he's the last segment until the finale. While I'm not entirely sure I'd call this my favorite part, I might just say Shinada might be my favorite addition to this game as a whole. I really didn't get Tanimura and I'm not certain I ever will. Meanwhile, Shinada immediately piqued my interest- he's a sad sap brought down by forces outside his control despite his clear talent. He's an earnest and almost childlike man, working in the sex industry as a journalist. His ass is broke as fuck and his stomach empty, but his heart is as big as ever. He...was classmates with Daigo? Huh.
Shinada's a weird ass character and his whole arc feels very bizarre considering its placement here at the end. But once his part gets going I think its placement makes a little more sense. I do wonder whether switching Parts 3 and 4 would have made more sense but I don't have any major issue with Shinada being so late in the game. His part's incredibly weird, starting off with very little money and seemingly having little to do with the plot- it really feels like you just transitioned into a whole different game. After some baseball side stories and other sidequests- it becomes really funny to see broke boy Shinada suddenly carrying around 20,000 dollars in his back pocket. Shinada's moveset is fine overall, and I think his weapon specialty in theory is neat, but not really something I engaged with too much. I did enjoy getting the pole charging move and running around in circles to stunlock enemies though.

One last note: There was a tiny moment, and it's not hard to notice or encounter naturally where you can just pick up a baseball bat with the intent to use it as a weapon; however, Shinada- as a former baseball player, disgraced and barred from his dream career- simply picks it up, inspects it and lays it down and can't be picked up again. I'm an absolute sucker for tiny details like this, and I feel like I miss them so often but just seeing this small interaction with Shinada and his past during a combat section was just one of the several shining moments from Y5 that'll stick in my mind as I look back at the series. I think his arc at least ends on a solid note, as Ill get to later, so I can't be too hopeful in him returning to another game. But if he ever does a cameo in a later title I'll pop off. Very glad to finally understand who Shinada is.

Finale
Finally, all the pieces come together...kinda. All throughout this mass of a game I gotta be real honest, the story has not been the major strength so far- at least when it comes to conciseness or any kind of... it's not the hardest to follow or the most absurd, it's just a lot to take in and by the time it reaches the final few hours there's a lot of stuff that feels REAL loose. I was really uncertain as to how much of it would actually tie in or matter as much as other throughlines. Maybe there would be a massive epilogue to help? Maybe the finale would be some Metal Gear Solid 4 mass of cutscenes? I wasn't too sure, all I could do was press forward into Kamurocho for the first real time in the game (You start Saejima in Kamurocho but I didn't bother exploring tbh). Most of these finale chapters act to provide a final few stretches with each character before the grand finale, but there's still some stuff to explore and tinker around with. Firstly, I must say bravo to RGG for instilling a deep sense of fear within me in a way I didn't expect. As I was doing the rounds in Kamurocho, I decided to use a taxi and head up towards E. Shichifuku St. I was half paying attention but instinctually marched forward, only to notice someone by Kamurocho Hills run off screen. I had only just noticed that for a half second but his pathing looped back around that small park area in the front to start chasing me from behind and this random guy's encounter procs. This wouldn't have frightened me if it wasn't for the fact this dude is jacked, has a really intimidating face and as I described, will chase you once he notices you. All the dude does is fight you as part of the Victory Road storyline but from then on this guy continues to patrol Kamurocho but unlike say, Mr. Shakedowns there's no way to really track this guy. For the most part this guy appeared whenever I had just gotten out of a taxi so there's just this sense of keeping a guard up for whenever I fast travel and the guy loading into crowds right behind whichever character I'm using. Yakuza 5, continuing to surprise me even to its last few hours!
This finale is dumb, a few reveals that are either too obvious or kinda just too stupid, the usual endgame dungeon fighting segments- the Yakuza norm for most of the final chapter. However, the literal FINAL chapter is something to write home about. Easily my favorite finale in the series. Just a great collection of action and character moments, the only fumble maybe being the final boss. It's alright but not the most insane fight in the series. Otherwise every other character has a fantastic final cutscene to conclude the game with, with equal parts sincere, heartfelt moments like Takasugi letting Shinada know people truly miss him, and equal parts absurd GAS like a large crowd of Omi Alliance, Yamagasa, and Kitakita family members kneeling to Akiyama for felling Kanai. The only thing more absurd is knowing this isn't really the end of Kiryu's story, which does make me hesitant to what direction Y6 and eventually Yakuza Gaiden take.

Needless to say, I really enjoyed this entry. It's not unheard of in this industry that a series can ping pong from one of its worst entries to one of its best (DMC2 to 3 more notably so), but I'm so glad that it was the case here.
It’s nowhere near perfect, far from it. However with how big of title this is it’s got one hell of a batting average with only a few segments or elements I really ‘dislike’. Hell, there’s a lot of stuff I still hadn’t sunk my teeth into like any of the cabaret games, chicken racing or snowball fights.I'll have to take a break from playing more of the games with how heavy this one felt but man is it great to have it off my back now. 80 hours of playtime and only ~50% completion, baby!

(Sidenote: I had plans to discuss how much of a ‘Dream’ game this felt- thinking my acknowledgment on how often the game uses ‘dream’ was solely my own idea. Little did I realize much of the fanbase already beat me to the punch- and the subtitle of the game is even called ‘Fulfiller of Dreams’ in Japan! Here I thought I was clever…regardless I enjoy how that's the theme of the game, some people are just haters)

The writing falls off a fucking cliff towards the end and its ambition becomes a double-edge sword but ooooo does it nail basically everything else right and is a crazy good blueprint for how the rest of the series goes. The individual stories are so captivating, the combat is probably some of the most fun I've had in the franchise, the content is very rich and plentiful, and a lot of the characters make such a strong impact and impression which is a crazy feat to pull off giving there's so much going on in the story.

It's the most Yakuza game out there for better and for worse, and is such a big reason for why I love the series as a whole.

2nd best yakuza. I really enjoyed this game, I loved all the playable characters, they all had unique combat and each one had their own town to explore. Each character also had their own huge minigame side quest, like playing need for speed, hunting giant bears, being a popstar, and playing baseball. The non kamurocho/sotenbori maps were cool but were pretty small and Nagasugai was hard to traverse because of the huge building circles you had to go around. They did well to differentiate each chapter, never making you lose interest. Kiryu is still dropping tigers, Saejima finally got rid of that Snape hair, Haruka is finally playable, Akiyama has a beautiful singing voice, and Shinada is the greatest thing to happen to humanity since the birth of Shaq.

I do admit, I was confused on where the story was going for a while. The first chapter progresses normally, then in the 2nd it almost feels like a whole other self-contained game. But by the end, you see some dots connect in your head, slowly. Then you move onto the next part which appears to drop the whole "yakuza" part of yakuza and is now a teen girl popstar movie complete with the mean girl rivals. But again, it masterfully and subtley connects everything together.

and by the last part you're introduced to a whole new character and are forced to open the wikipedia on baseball terminology.. and again, like the last chapters it connects together like a cool puzzle.

The finale chapter is really sick. The final boss is so great, probably the fairest hard boss in the series. And the parts where you could choose who to play as for the next part was cool.

Overall, this may feel long at times but I felt the length really was justified in how huge the scope of this game is. Instead of feeling like you start the game and 5 sidequests later you're shirtless on the millenium tower, it takes its time and encourages you with a slower pace to enjoy your surroundings and have fun with the side quests and minigames. Let me put it into perspective: By the end of chapter 2 in yakuza 5, I had more hours than I did by the end of yakuza 3. Good game!!!

I am utterly floored by how well Yakuza 5 seems to be received by the general fanbase. I’m wondering if most of the appeal of this game comes from its side content, because its main campaign has been the weakest by far out of all of the mainline Yakuza titles I’ve played up until this point. It’s a slow and disjointed campaign that isn’t very fun to play through and has extremely questionable and forced writing decisions. Like Yakuza 4, Yakuza 5 is divided up into sections with each section starring a different protagonist.

Kiryu’s section was fun to play through, however I have major issues with his place in the story and the circumstances that led to him leaving his kids and moving to Fukuoka. After declaring that he wouldn’t run away from his issues and problems anymore, he’s convinced by Park, this outsider who barely knows anything about Haruka that Kiryu being there for his kids somehow prevents them from being able to achieve their dreams. Her explanation for why is just totally asinine, yet Kiryu buys it hook, line and sinker and continues to just run away from his issues again despite the ending of 4. It’s an extremely frustrating direction to take the character and left a very sour taste in my mouth.

Saejima’s section is extremely dull both in terms of the gameplay and the narrative. I understand that he broke out of prison early in the previous game, but did so much of his story really need to take place inside of another prison? Did we really need to spend two chapters running around a prison yard that looks exactly like the one from Yakuza 4 only covered in snow now, talking to the same 4 people over and over again? Everything about this section feels incredibly contrived, it was like they needed an excuse to get Saejima out of Kamurochou and into a winter environment so they could experiment with the boring hunting segment.

Haruka and Akiyama’s section is even worse. As I mentioned during Kiryu’s section, the story setup for Haruka’s role in the story is incredibly frustrating, and I wasn’t at all convinced that being an idol is what Haruka herself actually wants in life. Haruka’s entire motivation for being an idol feels forced upon her by Park, who is very clearly trying to live vicariously through Haruka, and the fact that she drove Kiryu away and broke up their family in order to achieve this goal is absurdly selfish. Yet the game doesn’t treat it like a bad thing at all. Worst of all, they treat her like she’s in the right! It’s so stupid that I had very negative feelings going into Haruka’s section. I already knew about the idol stuff and the rhythm gameplay going into it, and while that type of gameplay is not to my tastes, I figured I could tolerate it if there was a good story behind it. However the poor story setup soured my mood so much that it made me dislike the idol/rhythm stuff even more than I would have otherwise. I was desperate to get through Haruka’s section as fast as I could because I just didn’t care about it at all. The story was shallow and I just wanted to move along. I’m so thankful you don’t spend this whole section as Haruka and that Akiyama was there to make it bearable. It just sucks that he had to share an entire section with Haruka because I really enjoy his character and find him really fun to play as.

Series newcomer Shinada’s section was actually rather decent. His combat is a little awkward to get used to at first, but after some upgrades and some time practicing with him, it becomes second nature like the other characters, and I was actually invested in his story unlike any of the previous characters’ sections, likely because his story is largely self-contained and has little to do with any of the previously established characters or story events. He’s a charming and fun guy.

The finale segment is Yakuza 5’s biggest highlight. It’s a mostly well-paced ending with some solid emotional beats, but the final boss very much overstays its welcome and was a huge chore to fight because it had so much health.

I didn’t do much side content in Yakuza 5, and like I said, I’m wondering if the side content is where most of this game’s appeal comes from. I definitely do not see much appeal in this game’s main campaign at all. It feels like a step backwards and relies on contrived setups to get the characters involved in the plot and where they need to be. Maybe coming back to this game and doing the side content in Premium Adventure will change my mind on it a bit in the future, but as it stands right now, this has been my least favorite Yakuza game so far. It’s still a solid title overall, but so much of the main campaign feels like an overly long waste of time.