Just needed to log that I love the idea of a huge Japanese man yelling "Hey, where's my spaghetti?!" too much to research whether that's a localizer's creative license or not.
About a week later...now that I've finished the game, the months-in-the-making follow up to my Yakuza 2, 3 and 4 reviews!
I entered Yakuza 5 with a strange feeling. I'd enjoyed my time with Kiwami, Zero and Kiwami 2 so much that I screamed through Yakuza 3 and 4, the latter of which was clearly intended to devour my free time. Thanks to some very compelling narrative choices, some unfortunately obscured side stories and the inevitable awkwardness of moving forward with a world that was jumping backwards in time mechanics wise, Yakuza 3 and 4 had not been the most enjoyable experiences. If Zero can rightly be pointed to as the catalyst for renewed Western zeal for the franchise and the Kiwami entries essential if modest modernizations of desperately old action games, Yakuza 3 and 4 function primarily as stark reminders of how exactly such a charming, idiosyncratic world of sexual deviants and back-tattooed soap opera stars could struggle for so long to find footing outside its home territories.
Yakuza 5, then, is a much needed balm for the marathoning first-timer. It combines many of the aspects that make those middle chapters as thrilling as they are infuriating with many, many hints of the strides the team at RGG Studio would make five years later with Zero. The result is a game that might have the least impactful story implications of the entire franchise, functioning mostly as a greatest hits mashup of Kiwami 2's baffling convolution, 3's dedication to the bit and 4's 50-piece puzzle brand of "so simple you'll never guess it" interweaving tales.
That might not sound appealing on its face, except that Yakuza 5 is such an effective time waster in part because each character is gifted with side stories equal parts absurd and heartwarming and an absolute litany of mini-games to play, all of which would be embarrassingly simple if not for the plucky charm inherent to this world. This was the first time in nearly two years plugging away at this franchise that I felt back in that old familiar groove of becoming so invested in Kiryu's street racing and taxi cab adventures, or Haruka's quest to refine her femininity for the stage, or Shinada's volcanic commitment to the bit during a multi-hour subplot involving nothing more than the batting cages that far more than half my time with Yakuza 5 was spent blissfully unaware of the entertainment industry chaos unfolding over in the shadows.
The cast is also far better realized than the last go around, even if the core story is practically more of a superfluous metaphor about the power of love, inspiration and ambition (or, y'know, "dreams") than an actual story. Kiryu's isolation feels both more earned and more sad than his time on the orphanage, Saejima once again goes to jail before once again mostly being sidelined by his own, strange place in this world but almost anything is better than convoluted rooftop and sewer navigation, Haruka lets the player explore this world free of conflict for once, Akiyama remains this period of Yakuza's secret, throbbing pulse while Shinada is maybe my favorite character yet in the franchise.
Scorching hot take, I'm sure, but there's something about the approach to his character that's oddly refreshing. He's not honor obsessed the way Kiryu or Saejima are, nor is he a swaggering rags to riches type like Akiyama. Instead he mostly plays as the embodiment of Akiyama's fantasy of himself, ceaselessly funny, charming and self-deprecating without the infinite piggy bank to get himself out of any jam. Thus he actually is a man of the people, and lets the player sink into Yakuza's universe as just another player in the game, rather than some legendary Dragon or other God-like figure taken human form.
All in all, while Yakuza 5 at times can certainly feel debilitatingly pointless - I started this game on Christmas Day, 2021 and beat it nearly a year later in no small part because I just couldn't bring myself to care about Saejima's adventures in bear country (I finished Part 2 on August 26th, 2022 and the rest of the game less than a month later by comparison) - as a total package it's a vital return to form for a franchise most Western players are likely experiencing in this backwards fashion wherein the game is actually signaling that the best is yet to come for this charmingly singular franchise.
But I suppose even that is fitting - what franchise other than Yakuza could find players in a position to celebrate signs of better and better things to come, only to remember those better things happened as many as five long years ago and you've already experienced them. Oh well! Now to decide whether I go play the child rearing simulator I apparently have to look forward or detour into the police procedural offshoot, Judgement, I suppose.
About a week later...now that I've finished the game, the months-in-the-making follow up to my Yakuza 2, 3 and 4 reviews!
I entered Yakuza 5 with a strange feeling. I'd enjoyed my time with Kiwami, Zero and Kiwami 2 so much that I screamed through Yakuza 3 and 4, the latter of which was clearly intended to devour my free time. Thanks to some very compelling narrative choices, some unfortunately obscured side stories and the inevitable awkwardness of moving forward with a world that was jumping backwards in time mechanics wise, Yakuza 3 and 4 had not been the most enjoyable experiences. If Zero can rightly be pointed to as the catalyst for renewed Western zeal for the franchise and the Kiwami entries essential if modest modernizations of desperately old action games, Yakuza 3 and 4 function primarily as stark reminders of how exactly such a charming, idiosyncratic world of sexual deviants and back-tattooed soap opera stars could struggle for so long to find footing outside its home territories.
Yakuza 5, then, is a much needed balm for the marathoning first-timer. It combines many of the aspects that make those middle chapters as thrilling as they are infuriating with many, many hints of the strides the team at RGG Studio would make five years later with Zero. The result is a game that might have the least impactful story implications of the entire franchise, functioning mostly as a greatest hits mashup of Kiwami 2's baffling convolution, 3's dedication to the bit and 4's 50-piece puzzle brand of "so simple you'll never guess it" interweaving tales.
That might not sound appealing on its face, except that Yakuza 5 is such an effective time waster in part because each character is gifted with side stories equal parts absurd and heartwarming and an absolute litany of mini-games to play, all of which would be embarrassingly simple if not for the plucky charm inherent to this world. This was the first time in nearly two years plugging away at this franchise that I felt back in that old familiar groove of becoming so invested in Kiryu's street racing and taxi cab adventures, or Haruka's quest to refine her femininity for the stage, or Shinada's volcanic commitment to the bit during a multi-hour subplot involving nothing more than the batting cages that far more than half my time with Yakuza 5 was spent blissfully unaware of the entertainment industry chaos unfolding over in the shadows.
The cast is also far better realized than the last go around, even if the core story is practically more of a superfluous metaphor about the power of love, inspiration and ambition (or, y'know, "dreams") than an actual story. Kiryu's isolation feels both more earned and more sad than his time on the orphanage, Saejima once again goes to jail before once again mostly being sidelined by his own, strange place in this world but almost anything is better than convoluted rooftop and sewer navigation, Haruka lets the player explore this world free of conflict for once, Akiyama remains this period of Yakuza's secret, throbbing pulse while Shinada is maybe my favorite character yet in the franchise.
Scorching hot take, I'm sure, but there's something about the approach to his character that's oddly refreshing. He's not honor obsessed the way Kiryu or Saejima are, nor is he a swaggering rags to riches type like Akiyama. Instead he mostly plays as the embodiment of Akiyama's fantasy of himself, ceaselessly funny, charming and self-deprecating without the infinite piggy bank to get himself out of any jam. Thus he actually is a man of the people, and lets the player sink into Yakuza's universe as just another player in the game, rather than some legendary Dragon or other God-like figure taken human form.
All in all, while Yakuza 5 at times can certainly feel debilitatingly pointless - I started this game on Christmas Day, 2021 and beat it nearly a year later in no small part because I just couldn't bring myself to care about Saejima's adventures in bear country (I finished Part 2 on August 26th, 2022 and the rest of the game less than a month later by comparison) - as a total package it's a vital return to form for a franchise most Western players are likely experiencing in this backwards fashion wherein the game is actually signaling that the best is yet to come for this charmingly singular franchise.
But I suppose even that is fitting - what franchise other than Yakuza could find players in a position to celebrate signs of better and better things to come, only to remember those better things happened as many as five long years ago and you've already experienced them. Oh well! Now to decide whether I go play the child rearing simulator I apparently have to look forward or detour into the police procedural offshoot, Judgement, I suppose.