This review contains spoilers
One of the strongest Yakuza games. In many aspects, it feels like they took what they failed on in Yakuza 3 and improved on it. The plot was strong and I will forever defend the boat.
Kiryu is amazing and depressed in this and the themes of failed father-son relationships run deep with pairs such as Big Lo and Jimmy, Big Lo and Yuta, Kurusu and Little Baby Iwami, and Kurusu and Hirose.
Despite Daigo being nowhere as present in the story as in previous games, this game made him and his relationship to Kiryu seem so much more important. The letter to him being formed as to at first seem like it would be aimed at Haruka and then hitting the player with the reveal that it was to Daigo was truly peak.
Iwami was a really hateable character, and it was a nice change of pace from villains that were humanized a lot in the prior games, which has been a trademark of the series. It felt satisfying to get at him, especially after the act of cowardice he displayed with Haruka.
However, the side cast was somewhat lacking. That might be especially highlighted after playing Yakuza 5, but characters like Kiyomi and Matsunaga don't really get fleshed out and remain pretty one-dimensional. The fake killing of Kiyomi was pretty weird as well. Kiryu's departure would've hit a bit harder if she actually had passed. Not to say it didn't hit hard though.
Regarding the side content, the sub stories were amazing, even more so as they were voiced, and quite adorable. Minigames were a bit sparse though. Karaoke was as enjoyable as ever.
Overall, an amazing story and good side stuff. Love it.
Kiryu is amazing and depressed in this and the themes of failed father-son relationships run deep with pairs such as Big Lo and Jimmy, Big Lo and Yuta, Kurusu and Little Baby Iwami, and Kurusu and Hirose.
Despite Daigo being nowhere as present in the story as in previous games, this game made him and his relationship to Kiryu seem so much more important. The letter to him being formed as to at first seem like it would be aimed at Haruka and then hitting the player with the reveal that it was to Daigo was truly peak.
Iwami was a really hateable character, and it was a nice change of pace from villains that were humanized a lot in the prior games, which has been a trademark of the series. It felt satisfying to get at him, especially after the act of cowardice he displayed with Haruka.
However, the side cast was somewhat lacking. That might be especially highlighted after playing Yakuza 5, but characters like Kiyomi and Matsunaga don't really get fleshed out and remain pretty one-dimensional. The fake killing of Kiyomi was pretty weird as well. Kiryu's departure would've hit a bit harder if she actually had passed. Not to say it didn't hit hard though.
Regarding the side content, the sub stories were amazing, even more so as they were voiced, and quite adorable. Minigames were a bit sparse though. Karaoke was as enjoyable as ever.
Overall, an amazing story and good side stuff. Love it.
Something something, a great Yakuza game when you don't have someone in your ear saying it's bad. Yes, the combat feels goofy, but the soundtrack, the Dragon Engine and so many aspects of this game feel great. Someya bros...
Don't belive in the Yakuza Fanbase, this game is awsome, i really like this game very much. And it's end the Yakuza franchise well, besides being a game not so good as his predecessor, having a gameplay not good as other titles ( Yakuza 2 og and Yakuza 5 for a exemple), it's a very good game.
good last mainline game for kiryu. solid story
Juegazo! Super emotivo, final perfecto para el tito Kiryu 🙌
This was certainly a ride.
Gameplay-wise I'm not too big of a fan of some of the Dragon Engine's physics, such as the hitbounce for one, and the early game takes a hit due to the combo speed too, which feels worse than the previous games. However, it taketh away, and giveth. Extreme Heat is such a cool mechanic that gives some satisfying tools, even though it does feel overpowered at times.
Story-wise I kept thinking "this is Yakuza 3 2" through the first few Onomichi chapters. It was nice.
I'm willing to be the Hirose family's strongest soldier, they're all good. Bless you, Nagumo
The last third of the game wasn't messing around at all with the amount of revelations and implications from each.
As always, they never miss with the final stretch in terms of making anyone pumped.
Banger soundtrack
Shoutouts to Korean Vergil and Takumi Someya
Wonder if we'll see the Dragon of Dojima again...
Gameplay-wise I'm not too big of a fan of some of the Dragon Engine's physics, such as the hitbounce for one, and the early game takes a hit due to the combo speed too, which feels worse than the previous games. However, it taketh away, and giveth. Extreme Heat is such a cool mechanic that gives some satisfying tools, even though it does feel overpowered at times.
Story-wise I kept thinking "this is Yakuza 3 2" through the first few Onomichi chapters. It was nice.
I'm willing to be the Hirose family's strongest soldier, they're all good. Bless you, Nagumo
The last third of the game wasn't messing around at all with the amount of revelations and implications from each.
As always, they never miss with the final stretch in terms of making anyone pumped.
Banger soundtrack
Shoutouts to Korean Vergil and Takumi Someya
Wonder if we'll see the Dragon of Dojima again...
This review contains spoilers
man, it's been over a week since i finished this game and i'm still having a hard time trying to parse my feelings on it. yeah sure i could talk about the gameplay and shit but really i've just been struggling to digest the story,,, like thinking about the parallels between the things haruka does in this game and the shit kiryu's done in the past makes me want to start clutching my head in AGONY she really takes after her dad huh,,,,,,
so much of the game made me so upset but like. (usually) not because the writing made me mad but just because you can really tell they were planning on ending kiryu's story here, and the whole thing is just one bittersweet farewell to this,, stupid, stubborn, horribly-emotionally-repressed-and-dense-but-somehow-still-lovable-in-spite-of-it mf we've been stuck with for so many games now. the shots of haruto taking his first steps in the very last cutscene interspersed w kiryu walking away from the orphanage for the last time made me actually start crying like a baby, no lie,,, like damn it's such a sad way for things to end but with this asshole's track record of running away from things it sure is in-character,,,,,,,
knowing he's gonna come back later does perhaps diminish the effects of an ending like that a little bit, but still, like. damn. i think i'm kinda rambling at this point and this is definitely wordier than probably every review i've posted so far but AUGH i just have so many THOUGHTS about this GAME!!!!!!!!
(i AM going to say as a last word that the only thing in this game that made me absolutely fucking FURIOUS was kiryu's bum ass writing that bullshit letter to daigo about how he always viewed himself as a father to him IN THE HOSPITAL ROOM WITH HARUKA RIGHT FUCKING BEHIND HIM!!!! YOU DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING FATHERLY FOR THAT MAN AT ANY POINT EVER AND YOU HAVE THE GALL TO SAY THAT WHILE YOUR ACTUAL DAUGHTER WHO YOU HAVE RAISED ON YOUR OWN SINCE SHE WAS LIKE 10 JUST WOKE UP FROM A COMA AND IS SITTING LESS THAN 5 FEET AWAY FROM YOU!?!?!??! YOU FUCKIGN DEADBEAT MORON AOUUUUUGH I HATE YOU)
so much of the game made me so upset but like. (usually) not because the writing made me mad but just because you can really tell they were planning on ending kiryu's story here, and the whole thing is just one bittersweet farewell to this,, stupid, stubborn, horribly-emotionally-repressed-and-dense-but-somehow-still-lovable-in-spite-of-it mf we've been stuck with for so many games now. the shots of haruto taking his first steps in the very last cutscene interspersed w kiryu walking away from the orphanage for the last time made me actually start crying like a baby, no lie,,, like damn it's such a sad way for things to end but with this asshole's track record of running away from things it sure is in-character,,,,,,,
knowing he's gonna come back later does perhaps diminish the effects of an ending like that a little bit, but still, like. damn. i think i'm kinda rambling at this point and this is definitely wordier than probably every review i've posted so far but AUGH i just have so many THOUGHTS about this GAME!!!!!!!!
(i AM going to say as a last word that the only thing in this game that made me absolutely fucking FURIOUS was kiryu's bum ass writing that bullshit letter to daigo about how he always viewed himself as a father to him IN THE HOSPITAL ROOM WITH HARUKA RIGHT FUCKING BEHIND HIM!!!! YOU DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING FATHERLY FOR THAT MAN AT ANY POINT EVER AND YOU HAVE THE GALL TO SAY THAT WHILE YOUR ACTUAL DAUGHTER WHO YOU HAVE RAISED ON YOUR OWN SINCE SHE WAS LIKE 10 JUST WOKE UP FROM A COMA AND IS SITTING LESS THAN 5 FEET AWAY FROM YOU!?!?!??! YOU FUCKIGN DEADBEAT MORON AOUUUUUGH I HATE YOU)
This yakuza is the most beautiful one, the best karaoke and ummmmmmmmm... Hirose Family is cool.
Story is mixed with beautiful moments and great characters, but a lot of things feels so wrong.
THE WORST COMBAT IN THE SERIES WITH THE WORST PROGRESSION SYSTEM.
Dragon engine gives some cool QOL changes and makes the game sooooooooooooo beautiful. I wish more yakuza games had voiced substories like 6. Side content was fine. OST is a banger.
I still liked yakuza 6, but could be much better.
Story is mixed with beautiful moments and great characters, but a lot of things feels so wrong.
THE WORST COMBAT IN THE SERIES WITH THE WORST PROGRESSION SYSTEM.
Dragon engine gives some cool QOL changes and makes the game sooooooooooooo beautiful. I wish more yakuza games had voiced substories like 6. Side content was fine. OST is a banger.
I still liked yakuza 6, but could be much better.
Even though this game took me a week to beat, it was still a joy to play. It felt a lot like 3 in some places and that's good. There's not as much stuff in it as 5 but it is on a new engine to them so I can't blame them. I really enjoyed this game. The game made me cry!
kiryu turns into an actual mythological monster in this game
hes a real dragon it rules so much
hes a real dragon it rules so much
I am emotionally destroyed
This review contains spoilers
Único jogo que me fez sentir velho ao ver que a haruka tem um filho
I have a theory that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio makes their games according to the following algorithm:
10 Innovate in some way, and make a flawed game as a result.
20 Polish up the previous entry, ending up with a good game that reuses a lot of assets.
30 GOTO 10
Having played Kiwami 2, I believe Yakuza 6 is the "innovate" step of that algorithm, the main innovation here being the new engine. It is impressive for the first few hours: being able to fight basically anywhere, having a lot more freedom in movement, laughing when Kiryu sends goons flying with a well-placed dropkick, then laughing a lot less when the friends of said goons stunlock Kiryu. But the more you play Yakuza 6, the more you notice the sacrifices that had to be made to bring in all of that.
The big one is, of course, the whole northern part of Kamurocho. Majima's Kamuro Hills, casinos in Ryugujou, Sai-no-Kawara and even Champion Gai are unreachable, and no reason why you can't go there is offered in-game. Another loss is the weapon system - you can only use what you pick up during the fight. That would not be so bad on old engine - but in Yakuza 6 every weapon is less durable than a plastic fork. And even if you try to save the weapon charges, the engine might decide to obliterate it anyway, if you collide with some other surface. There are other, minor things that stand out (like the batting center having no background music, or the removal of side story markers), but the bottom line here is: Dragon Engine took away just as much as it brought to the game.
Unlike the engine and the gameplay, which are at least initially impressive, story is a shitshow all the way through. The cause is probably Yakuza 5 - writers needed to unwrap that ending somehow and create a new conflict, preferably on a similar scale. So we have 4 (four) criminal organizations present in the plot, two of them are openly at war with each other (at least that's what you're told) and you bet Kiryu's gonna beat them all up because their leaders misspelled Haruka's name or something. Oh, and all those protagonist candidates we had in Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5? Gone. Daigo and Saejima at least get an official reason for being banned from participation, Majima just stays offscreen for the entire game for no reason (bet he was in that locked-off area in northern Kamurocho).
Kiryu's new sidekicks, the Hirose Ikka members are not bad per se, but the writers really try too hard to pull them close to Kiryu's level. Nagumo and the others are barely more than local thugs, who don't even have the balls to oppose their superiors - and yet by the end of the game they are treated as equals of Kiryu, Akiyama and other "legends". The "Men vs. Millenium Tower" shot, which was a staple since at least Yakuza 6 looks laughable here.
And the ending...probably had some emotional value, back when the game first released. Not so much now, thanks to the games that followed after *6.
So all that said, I'll give Yakuza 6* 3/5 starts. Two of them for that minigame, where Kiryu types "O P P A I O P P A I" using only index fingers.
10 Innovate in some way, and make a flawed game as a result.
20 Polish up the previous entry, ending up with a good game that reuses a lot of assets.
30 GOTO 10
Having played Kiwami 2, I believe Yakuza 6 is the "innovate" step of that algorithm, the main innovation here being the new engine. It is impressive for the first few hours: being able to fight basically anywhere, having a lot more freedom in movement, laughing when Kiryu sends goons flying with a well-placed dropkick, then laughing a lot less when the friends of said goons stunlock Kiryu. But the more you play Yakuza 6, the more you notice the sacrifices that had to be made to bring in all of that.
The big one is, of course, the whole northern part of Kamurocho. Majima's Kamuro Hills, casinos in Ryugujou, Sai-no-Kawara and even Champion Gai are unreachable, and no reason why you can't go there is offered in-game. Another loss is the weapon system - you can only use what you pick up during the fight. That would not be so bad on old engine - but in Yakuza 6 every weapon is less durable than a plastic fork. And even if you try to save the weapon charges, the engine might decide to obliterate it anyway, if you collide with some other surface. There are other, minor things that stand out (like the batting center having no background music, or the removal of side story markers), but the bottom line here is: Dragon Engine took away just as much as it brought to the game.
Unlike the engine and the gameplay, which are at least initially impressive, story is a shitshow all the way through. The cause is probably Yakuza 5 - writers needed to unwrap that ending somehow and create a new conflict, preferably on a similar scale. So we have 4 (four) criminal organizations present in the plot, two of them are openly at war with each other (at least that's what you're told) and you bet Kiryu's gonna beat them all up because their leaders misspelled Haruka's name or something. Oh, and all those protagonist candidates we had in Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5? Gone. Daigo and Saejima at least get an official reason for being banned from participation, Majima just stays offscreen for the entire game for no reason (bet he was in that locked-off area in northern Kamurocho).
Kiryu's new sidekicks, the Hirose Ikka members are not bad per se, but the writers really try too hard to pull them close to Kiryu's level. Nagumo and the others are barely more than local thugs, who don't even have the balls to oppose their superiors - and yet by the end of the game they are treated as equals of Kiryu, Akiyama and other "legends". The "Men vs. Millenium Tower" shot, which was a staple since at least Yakuza 6 looks laughable here.
And the ending...probably had some emotional value, back when the game first released. Not so much now, thanks to the games that followed after *6.
So all that said, I'll give Yakuza 6* 3/5 starts. Two of them for that minigame, where Kiryu types "O P P A I O P P A I" using only index fingers.
What this game lacks in narrative depth it makes up for in brevity and raw emotion.
It's one of my favourite entries, the story feels conclusive on it's own (even if 7 and Gaiden exists) and leaves you with a bittersweet ending for a franchise full of bittersweet endings
Too many of my tears were shed due to this game... A somewhat misunderstood entry of the franchise in my eyes. The combat is extremely clunky and the leveling system is made by an insane person but It's also some of the most fun I've had in the entire series. Wrapped together with a beautiful but bittersweet story, Yakuza 6 is amazing.
Top 3 yakuza story but the gameplay really drags it down. It's still really good gameplay but nowhere up to par with the rest of yakuza. It was especially jarring right after playing the yakuza with the best combat (y5). The combat becomes very fun once Kiryu is fully levelled but that shouldn't be endgame only. The final boss felt amazing though especially because of the scene preceding it.
This game is really beautiful and at some points is better than kiwami 2 visually. Onomichi is a really cool looking location, I wish there was more to do there though. My favourite part about this game visually though is Kamurocho. I could probably spend an hour just walking around looking at the really cool sights and details all over the map. W sweat physics dragon engine.
I think the ending was amazing and was near perfect I was spoiled for a big plot point because of LAD:G's existence but it still hit the same for me. The main characters in this game are so compelling and have their own motives that make sense and are very human.
9/10 better than yakuza 3,4 and kiwami 2
This game is really beautiful and at some points is better than kiwami 2 visually. Onomichi is a really cool looking location, I wish there was more to do there though. My favourite part about this game visually though is Kamurocho. I could probably spend an hour just walking around looking at the really cool sights and details all over the map. W sweat physics dragon engine.
I think the ending was amazing and was near perfect I was spoiled for a big plot point because of LAD:G's existence but it still hit the same for me. The main characters in this game are so compelling and have their own motives that make sense and are very human.
9/10 better than yakuza 3,4 and kiwami 2
Pour la "dernière" histoire de Kiryu je dirai Ue ça manque de poids et la lettre à daigo ne fait aucun sens ils ont franchement raté la scène
Sim, esse é o "final" que o Kiryu merecia!
Chegamos ao fim da maratona, o cansaço chegou, então essa review vai ser mais dinâmica, vamos aos pontos:
• História
Alta qualidade como já se esperava. Ótima ideia ter sido algo mais sentimental e pessoal, combinou com a proposta e foi bem executada, só achei que lá pro meio meteram muita informação (tem 4 "facções" diferentes, uma delas nd a ver) e não deu pra pegar tudo. O final é um baita destaque que fecha as pontas soltas e honra o legado do Dragão de Dojima.
• Combate
1ª entrada na nova engine, a galera quis tentar algo diferente, não é surpresa ter sido bem experimental. Não é ruim, mas ter saÃdo do 4 e 5 que são o ápice da fórmula pra isso desanima de inÃcio, mas você vai upando o boneco e o combate vai ficando melhor, dá pra se acostumar.
• Exploração
Se tem algo que a Dragon Engine fez de bom, foi criar um mundo aberto muito mais gostoso de se explorar. As melhorias de qualidade de vida são excelentes, de modo que você até cria gosto pra enfrentar os inimigos aleatórios, fazer missões secundárias, minigames, só porque é muito divertido.
• Impressões gerais positivas
Yakuza 6 me fez perceber que eu prefiro histórias mais objetivas e enxutas. Me fez perceber que quando se foca em um protagonista, a chance de dar bom é maior. Me fez perceber que curtir um jogo no seu tempo é ótimo. Foi ótimo terminar a saga com um gosto bom.
• Impressões gerais negativas
Claro, eu preferiria que o jogo não tivesse tantos antagonistas, preferiria que a "cara de conclusão" não se restringisse às últimas horas de jogo, assim como que o desempenho não fosse tão ruim no Xbox One, porque 23 fps é de ferrar.
• Conclusão
No geral, é uma experiência sólida que com certeza vai agradar a quem jogou os jogos anteriores. Apesar de saber que o Kiryu não foi apagado da franquia nesse tÃtulo, eu ficaria satisfeita caso sua aparição realmente terminasse aqui.
Chegamos ao fim da maratona, o cansaço chegou, então essa review vai ser mais dinâmica, vamos aos pontos:
• História
Alta qualidade como já se esperava. Ótima ideia ter sido algo mais sentimental e pessoal, combinou com a proposta e foi bem executada, só achei que lá pro meio meteram muita informação (tem 4 "facções" diferentes, uma delas nd a ver) e não deu pra pegar tudo. O final é um baita destaque que fecha as pontas soltas e honra o legado do Dragão de Dojima.
• Combate
1ª entrada na nova engine, a galera quis tentar algo diferente, não é surpresa ter sido bem experimental. Não é ruim, mas ter saÃdo do 4 e 5 que são o ápice da fórmula pra isso desanima de inÃcio, mas você vai upando o boneco e o combate vai ficando melhor, dá pra se acostumar.
• Exploração
Se tem algo que a Dragon Engine fez de bom, foi criar um mundo aberto muito mais gostoso de se explorar. As melhorias de qualidade de vida são excelentes, de modo que você até cria gosto pra enfrentar os inimigos aleatórios, fazer missões secundárias, minigames, só porque é muito divertido.
• Impressões gerais positivas
Yakuza 6 me fez perceber que eu prefiro histórias mais objetivas e enxutas. Me fez perceber que quando se foca em um protagonista, a chance de dar bom é maior. Me fez perceber que curtir um jogo no seu tempo é ótimo. Foi ótimo terminar a saga com um gosto bom.
• Impressões gerais negativas
Claro, eu preferiria que o jogo não tivesse tantos antagonistas, preferiria que a "cara de conclusão" não se restringisse às últimas horas de jogo, assim como que o desempenho não fosse tão ruim no Xbox One, porque 23 fps é de ferrar.
• Conclusão
No geral, é uma experiência sólida que com certeza vai agradar a quem jogou os jogos anteriores. Apesar de saber que o Kiryu não foi apagado da franquia nesse tÃtulo, eu ficaria satisfeita caso sua aparição realmente terminasse aqui.
This review contains spoilers
the final boss is a buff nerd emoji
this truly was the song of life
Uma linda despedida
incredible game, what a conclusion to the kiryu saga, exploring the different bonds between parents and child, blood related or not and executed so well.
the game finally made kiryu realize what he needed to do to finally keep haruka and his kids safe is to walk away, his history is too damaging to everyone around him wether it's intentionally or not, as sad as it is its what needed.
this game also introduced way too many amazing characters, from SOMEYA, hirose, yuta, kurusu, joon-gi, big lo and iwami.(yes i said iwami)
the only problems (well its a really big problems) dragon engine, i know this is the first DE game. but my god is the combat so buggy and delayed and the in-game cutscenes look stiff.
the game finally made kiryu realize what he needed to do to finally keep haruka and his kids safe is to walk away, his history is too damaging to everyone around him wether it's intentionally or not, as sad as it is its what needed.
this game also introduced way too many amazing characters, from SOMEYA, hirose, yuta, kurusu, joon-gi, big lo and iwami.(yes i said iwami)
the only problems (well its a really big problems) dragon engine, i know this is the first DE game. but my god is the combat so buggy and delayed and the in-game cutscenes look stiff.
This review contains spoilers
I'M DRAGGING YOU TO HELL WITH ME LITTLE BABY IWAMI.
Yakuza 6 was surprisingly a fire ass game. Y6 is the 1st game on the dragon engine and it adds some very nice changes such as being able to enter buildings without a loading screen or the removal of intros in random encounters.
The combat of the game didn't click with me at first and it is clearly not as good as some the previous entries in the series, but after some upgrades it suddenly clicked, and i started loving the combat.
Extreme heat mode is 1 of the reasons why i love the combat, it can get you out of sticky situations and it can make bosses way easier. My only complaints about the combat is that the enemies block a bit too much, and for some reason they removed the equippable weapons.
The bosses are mostly very solid, but i wish some of them had more health bars. My favorite bosses in the game are: Akiyama, Yuta Usami, korean Vergil, Toru Hirose and the third Takumi Someya fight.
Out of all the rgg games that i've played, this is easily the best looking game both graphically and visually, and good lord this game has some very good looking cutscenes such as the one before the Yuta boss fight.
Y6 also brings a new location to the table which is onimichi. Even tho i think that onomichi is one of the weaker cities in the series, it was still a nice addition, and it has a tofu shop owned by the GOAT pocket circuit fighter.
The substories were pretty solid but not as good as the substories of the previous entries. Spear fishing and clan fighting were pretty fun side content but i wasn't a big fan of the baseball stuff.
Now lets get to the best part of the game and that is the story. Yakuza 6's story for me is on par with Y0 and Y5's story which is a very high bar. The game introduces a bunch of new characters. The hirose family are some very loveable characters, and my favorite of the bunch is Nagumo, who would've thought that the tutorial boss would become such a fun and memorable side character?
Yuta Usami is another well written side character that i loved, and him being the father of Haruto was quite unexpected but thankfully he isn't a horrible person.
As for the villains of the game well there are some good ones and a bad one. Takumi Someya is my favorite villain in Y6, in the final chapter we get to see how he cares for his ex wife Kiyomi and his daughter and that deep down he isn't a terrible person such as another villain that i will talk about soon, and he even sacrifices his life to save Kiyomi, but sadly he died thinking Kiyomi was dead. Toru Hirose is the other villain (not 100% sure if he is considered one) that i like, at first you think that he is just a funny old man, but then you find out that he is a very intimidating old man. Toru Hirose's backstory was very intriguing and he probably reminded Kiryu of Kazama, and like Takumi Someya he gets quite a sad death. Tsuneo Iwami is genuinely one of the most hateable, kickable, punchable, slappable villains i have ever seen, if they were aiming to make the most unlovable villain ever then they did a damn good job. Iwami ain't even very strong, dude got his ass kicked by Kiryu who suffered some heavy blows just before the fight.Sugai fucking sucks. What about the protagonist Kiryu? Well its fucking Kiryu! He is obviously a hot and amazingly well written protagonist.
As for the music well it fricking slaps! My favorite songs are:
Lots of lights which plays during the final long battle
Destiny which plays during the final Someya fight
Brother brother which is Nagumo's boss theme
The way of life which is Tsuneo Iwami's boss theme.
Overall i personally think that Yakuza 6 is insanely underrated and even tho it has a few issues i am still gonna give it a nice
9.5/10
Edit:I decided to higher my rating to a 10
Yakuza 6 was surprisingly a fire ass game. Y6 is the 1st game on the dragon engine and it adds some very nice changes such as being able to enter buildings without a loading screen or the removal of intros in random encounters.
The combat of the game didn't click with me at first and it is clearly not as good as some the previous entries in the series, but after some upgrades it suddenly clicked, and i started loving the combat.
Extreme heat mode is 1 of the reasons why i love the combat, it can get you out of sticky situations and it can make bosses way easier. My only complaints about the combat is that the enemies block a bit too much, and for some reason they removed the equippable weapons.
The bosses are mostly very solid, but i wish some of them had more health bars. My favorite bosses in the game are: Akiyama, Yuta Usami, korean Vergil, Toru Hirose and the third Takumi Someya fight.
Out of all the rgg games that i've played, this is easily the best looking game both graphically and visually, and good lord this game has some very good looking cutscenes such as the one before the Yuta boss fight.
Y6 also brings a new location to the table which is onimichi. Even tho i think that onomichi is one of the weaker cities in the series, it was still a nice addition, and it has a tofu shop owned by the GOAT pocket circuit fighter.
The substories were pretty solid but not as good as the substories of the previous entries. Spear fishing and clan fighting were pretty fun side content but i wasn't a big fan of the baseball stuff.
Now lets get to the best part of the game and that is the story. Yakuza 6's story for me is on par with Y0 and Y5's story which is a very high bar. The game introduces a bunch of new characters. The hirose family are some very loveable characters, and my favorite of the bunch is Nagumo, who would've thought that the tutorial boss would become such a fun and memorable side character?
Yuta Usami is another well written side character that i loved, and him being the father of Haruto was quite unexpected but thankfully he isn't a horrible person.
As for the villains of the game well there are some good ones and a bad one. Takumi Someya is my favorite villain in Y6, in the final chapter we get to see how he cares for his ex wife Kiyomi and his daughter and that deep down he isn't a terrible person such as another villain that i will talk about soon, and he even sacrifices his life to save Kiyomi, but sadly he died thinking Kiyomi was dead. Toru Hirose is the other villain (not 100% sure if he is considered one) that i like, at first you think that he is just a funny old man, but then you find out that he is a very intimidating old man. Toru Hirose's backstory was very intriguing and he probably reminded Kiryu of Kazama, and like Takumi Someya he gets quite a sad death. Tsuneo Iwami is genuinely one of the most hateable, kickable, punchable, slappable villains i have ever seen, if they were aiming to make the most unlovable villain ever then they did a damn good job. Iwami ain't even very strong, dude got his ass kicked by Kiryu who suffered some heavy blows just before the fight.Sugai fucking sucks. What about the protagonist Kiryu? Well its fucking Kiryu! He is obviously a hot and amazingly well written protagonist.
As for the music well it fricking slaps! My favorite songs are:
Lots of lights which plays during the final long battle
Destiny which plays during the final Someya fight
Brother brother which is Nagumo's boss theme
The way of life which is Tsuneo Iwami's boss theme.
Overall i personally think that Yakuza 6 is insanely underrated and even tho it has a few issues i am still gonna give it a nice
9.5/10
Edit:I decided to higher my rating to a 10
Short and sweet. The combat's kinda rough but I really like the story. It's also shockingly pretty.
the weirdest game in the series but love the hirose boys and kiryu is at his best here
This review contains spoilers
Much of Yakuza 6's development time was spent on the Dragon Engine so the game is a lot smaller in every aspect especially if you compare it to 5 it's like 1/10th the amount of content. On the plus side 6's story is nowhere near as bloated and convoluted as 5's was. For the first half it's pretty enjoyable, Kiryu running around trying to figure out who fucked his daughter and stumbling upon a massive conspiracy involving the Saio Triad, Jingweon Mafia and Yomei Alliance. It's pretty standard Yakuza stuff with a great cast of supporting characters. But in the 2nd half all of it just falls flat and the pacing becomes messy, Big Lo of the Saio Triad gives up on trying to kill his half japanese grandson and the whole Saio Triad just fades away. The Jingeon Mafia gets dealt with during the stupid boat section that feels completely out of place and end up being nothing more than mere henchmen, they just seem like a complete afterthought. After that you're basically told "alright go to the Millennium Tower and wrap this shit up" without any sort of of build up or tension. Once you're at the top the 3 main string pulling antagonists greet you via Skype video call, Iwami, Sugai and Koshimizu who are all just incredibly unremarkable downright Yakuza 4 tier antagonists. Koshimizu randomly betrays the other 2 without there ever being much of an explanation, I guess he was tired of being their lapdog or something. Then you have Sugai and, gun to my head, I could not remember 1 thing about him other than him being the acting Tojo chairman. Last but not least Iwami, who maybe had like 10 lines of dialogue throughout the game with him and Kiryu not even interacting once before the final confrontation. He's only targeting Kiryu because the evil Daidoji deep-state are mad he exposed their cool boat. The ending cutscene is definitely a highlight and would've been a good bittersweet conclusion to Kiryu's saga but that's not what this game turned out to be and every game that has come out after tries it's hardest to spit on this ending.
The main strength of the story are the supporting characters, the new group in Onomichi has a great dynamic which really isn't all too surprising considering this is the stuff the series has always excelled in. Now as for returning characters, you mainly just have Akiyama who for plot convenience has to be completely broke because as it turns out, having a guy with infinite money around is not a good idea! Other fan favorites are missing and in Majima's case I'm starting to think Yokoyama (or whoever) just downright hates him.
Yakuze 4 -> Gives Saejima a summary of what happened while he was in jail and is then just locked up for the rest of the game.
Yakuza 5 -> "Dead" for 99% of it and only shows up at the end to randomly fight Saejima.
Yakuza 6 -> In jail for 100% of it.
Now for the combat, the only positive thing I can say is that the Dragon Engine's physics are occasionally funny but aside from that it's an annoying clunky piece of shit. Words really can't describe how much worse the engine's combat feels. Beyond that you have the new progression system which isn't helping the overall experience either. The exp bar has been replaced by the gut gauge which forces you to constantly open up the menu to check if your stomach is empty in which case you then have to run (or walk thanks to the dogshit sprint) to the nearest restaurant to gobble up some food and get your silly little colored orbs. Fighting itself doesn't give you jack shit as it just empties your gauge faster. Said colored orbs are what you then use on your upgrade paths which is where the system REALLY gets good!! The stat increase skills were simply a bad idea, specifically attack power. Your base damage is so obscenely low and putting orbs into it early is bad because the game also offers upgrades like increase the overall amount of orbs you get and other QoL things which you'd obviously wanna prioritize. The maxed out attack should've been the base instead and the skill itself removed alongside all the skills in the "other skills" section. The game also LOVES throwing big crowds of enemies at you but they forgot to give you tools to deal with them. None of your moves have any sort of protection and the charge attacks specifically are just an invite to get stunlocked. With the physics and everything else, Kiryu's entire kit feels so pathetically weak and dysfunctional but hey, the environment tends to be filled with things you can pick up so I guess they don't expect you to use your abilities anyway.
The main strength of the story are the supporting characters, the new group in Onomichi has a great dynamic which really isn't all too surprising considering this is the stuff the series has always excelled in. Now as for returning characters, you mainly just have Akiyama who for plot convenience has to be completely broke because as it turns out, having a guy with infinite money around is not a good idea! Other fan favorites are missing and in Majima's case I'm starting to think Yokoyama (or whoever) just downright hates him.
Yakuze 4 -> Gives Saejima a summary of what happened while he was in jail and is then just locked up for the rest of the game.
Yakuza 5 -> "Dead" for 99% of it and only shows up at the end to randomly fight Saejima.
Yakuza 6 -> In jail for 100% of it.
Now for the combat, the only positive thing I can say is that the Dragon Engine's physics are occasionally funny but aside from that it's an annoying clunky piece of shit. Words really can't describe how much worse the engine's combat feels. Beyond that you have the new progression system which isn't helping the overall experience either. The exp bar has been replaced by the gut gauge which forces you to constantly open up the menu to check if your stomach is empty in which case you then have to run (or walk thanks to the dogshit sprint) to the nearest restaurant to gobble up some food and get your silly little colored orbs. Fighting itself doesn't give you jack shit as it just empties your gauge faster. Said colored orbs are what you then use on your upgrade paths which is where the system REALLY gets good!! The stat increase skills were simply a bad idea, specifically attack power. Your base damage is so obscenely low and putting orbs into it early is bad because the game also offers upgrades like increase the overall amount of orbs you get and other QoL things which you'd obviously wanna prioritize. The maxed out attack should've been the base instead and the skill itself removed alongside all the skills in the "other skills" section. The game also LOVES throwing big crowds of enemies at you but they forgot to give you tools to deal with them. None of your moves have any sort of protection and the charge attacks specifically are just an invite to get stunlocked. With the physics and everything else, Kiryu's entire kit feels so pathetically weak and dysfunctional but hey, the environment tends to be filled with things you can pick up so I guess they don't expect you to use your abilities anyway.
This review contains spoilers
As with the other games in the franchise it has high highs and low lows but a lovable cast of characters that make up for the weaknesses in plot and gameplay.
On the gameplay end this one is dragon engine again which I like significantly better than the alternative used in the rest of the series sans kiwami 2.
Story wise, it starts out strong with the introduction of some lovable new characters, but falters towards the end when it tries to redeem a domestic abuser, and then Kiryu seems to learn none of the lessons the game seems to be trying to teach him.
On the gameplay end this one is dragon engine again which I like significantly better than the alternative used in the rest of the series sans kiwami 2.
Story wise, it starts out strong with the introduction of some lovable new characters, but falters towards the end when it tries to redeem a domestic abuser, and then Kiryu seems to learn none of the lessons the game seems to be trying to teach him.
Despite the Dragon Engine's first steps, I was really really into this game during the first half; the story was very engaging, especially knowing that it's supposed to be the end of Kiryu's saga, and I got very good Yakuza 3 vibes from Onomichi and it's very lovable set of characters.
Unfortunately the story lost me a bit in the middle. I think there are too many instances where you get hours of cutscenes interrupted by 10 minutes of gameplay, and dialogues never felt this long in the series. Everything being voiced is a problem to me, as I used to read non-voiced text way faster than they talk and I could have my own pacing. It feels weird doing that now that they actually talk and that it's all presented as proper cutscenes despite the janky animations, so I just listen to them and get bored fast.
I do really like the ending (and by that I mean it made me tear up) but I feel like I would have enjoyed the game more if it was solely focused on Kiryu and Haruka without necessarily another big conspiracy. All the characters are great tho.
Now about this Dragon Engine : The game looks very very pretty, that's a thing. Lights are particularly well rendered. Fighting looks very cool, very fluid and all, but it's very sloppy and gets worse when you're up against more than 10 guys, which happens a lot. Also kiryu's moveset seems to be lighter than ever, which makes combat feel very very repetitive.
Minigames and activities are still pretty fun (I was surprised by the fishing), but Clan Creator is way less interesting to play than the one in Kiwami 2, and Baseball team management has 0 tutorial somehow ?
It's a bit sad for a game that's supposed to be that important in the series to feel rushed and unpolished like that. But it still has it's great moments.
Not sure how I'll look back on this one.
I'm curious to see what's next, I hope it was worth it to do more Kiryu stuff and negate this very clear send-off haha
Unfortunately the story lost me a bit in the middle. I think there are too many instances where you get hours of cutscenes interrupted by 10 minutes of gameplay, and dialogues never felt this long in the series. Everything being voiced is a problem to me, as I used to read non-voiced text way faster than they talk and I could have my own pacing. It feels weird doing that now that they actually talk and that it's all presented as proper cutscenes despite the janky animations, so I just listen to them and get bored fast.
I do really like the ending (and by that I mean it made me tear up) but I feel like I would have enjoyed the game more if it was solely focused on Kiryu and Haruka without necessarily another big conspiracy. All the characters are great tho.
Now about this Dragon Engine : The game looks very very pretty, that's a thing. Lights are particularly well rendered. Fighting looks very cool, very fluid and all, but it's very sloppy and gets worse when you're up against more than 10 guys, which happens a lot. Also kiryu's moveset seems to be lighter than ever, which makes combat feel very very repetitive.
Minigames and activities are still pretty fun (I was surprised by the fishing), but Clan Creator is way less interesting to play than the one in Kiwami 2, and Baseball team management has 0 tutorial somehow ?
It's a bit sad for a game that's supposed to be that important in the series to feel rushed and unpolished like that. But it still has it's great moments.
Not sure how I'll look back on this one.
I'm curious to see what's next, I hope it was worth it to do more Kiryu stuff and negate this very clear send-off haha
IM NOT CRYING YOUR CRYING