I was super psyched at the concept of this game when it was announced and I bought it a month or two after it came out in Japan with the (quite reasonable) assumption that it would never be coming out in America. Well it was announced and came out here and I still hadn't finished it, so I decided it was high time to finally play through this game that just couldn't seem to grab me. Compared to other games in the series (that I have played), it's got its lows and highs relatively, but I still enjoyed my time with it well enough. I played through on hard mode and mucked around a TON for side stuff to do, so it took me about 35 hours to finish.
The game's story is definitely one of the biggest complaints I have. I know that given that I've only played Yakuza 1 and 2, I'm a bit spoiled for the quality of storytelling in those games, but this is a real step down from even Yakuza 1's unfinished-feeling pre-Kiwami story. You really might as well not even bother trying to do the Yakuza "walk around the city and try and do fun things" stuff until at least chapter 6 because the previous chapters are so linear and railroaded that there are actually relatively few sidequests to do during them. The main story itself is very tied to its source material, and I would say that is often a chain around it's neck rather than any kind of boon. A lot of the story feels like fanservice pandering to show off Kenshiro fighting iconic bad guys who are just shoved into the story because they just wanted to have him fight that guy. The story is constantly being pulled between the traditional story and its iconic characters and the new alt-universe story the game presents that has the bulk of the narrative taking place around one city (Yakuza-style). The narrative and characters are definitely the weakest part of the game in a series that I associate with at least decent if not great narrative and character writing.
The side-activities are all pretty familiar to anyone who's played a more recent Yakuza game. You have the host club, bar tending, a rhythm game, colosseum fights, as well as (what I assume is a new addition) buggy racing. This game adds a big open map you can drive around in a buggy in outside the main city, but it feels a bit tacked on not because of how good the driving is (which is pretty fun), but because of the relative dearth of content to actually find out exploring the desert. The other mini-games are really only any more interesting than in the other games by virtue of the narrative finding an excuse for Kenshiro to reluctantly be doing these silly things instead of the main quest, which is actually quite funny (especially the rhythm and bartending games).
The main meat, and where I'd say this is actually one of the best in the Yakuza series, is the combat. This game has totally revamped how the heat action system works and it is SO fun. Although the game doesn't really have any items you can pick up, the heat actions are now tied to enemy positioning and enemy stuns. If you can get behind an enemy or stun them, you can press circle to activate one of Kenshiro's Fist of the North Star techniques for a bunch of extra damage through a small set of QTE actions. There's even a pre-technique other QTE you can do by pressing circle again with the right timing mid-stun and it'll pull off a quick-execution. The big techniques and quick-executions make combat flow super smoothly and a LOT of fun. It is definitely the main thing that makes this game stand out among others in the franchise alongside the FotNS fanservice.
The game's presentation is a bit of a mixed bag. While the character models look great, the cutscenes are beautiful, and the mid-battle in-game cutscenes are also amazing, the other parts of the game seem really oddly underanimated by contrast. The in-game cutscenes that are detached from battles have a very odd and robotic feel to them because characters are voiced but barely ever actually move. They're just standing stoically at one another speaking, and it very often looks really unnatural even for FotNS. It's not a game breaker or anything, and the stuff they nail does look GREAT, but it's something that really pulled me out of any immersion in the narrative/world pretty frequently.
Verdict: Recommended. This game isn't a brilliant Yakuza game, but it's a really fun video game. It's probably the second to last (just ahead of 6) of the 5 Yazkua games out on PS4 I'd recommend for someone's introduction to the series given how much better the writing is in 0-Kiwami 2, but if you're in the mood for a different kind of brawler RPG then this is one you'll probably enjoy, especially if you like ridiculous head-exploding nonsense that comes with the Fist of the North Star license.
The game's story is definitely one of the biggest complaints I have. I know that given that I've only played Yakuza 1 and 2, I'm a bit spoiled for the quality of storytelling in those games, but this is a real step down from even Yakuza 1's unfinished-feeling pre-Kiwami story. You really might as well not even bother trying to do the Yakuza "walk around the city and try and do fun things" stuff until at least chapter 6 because the previous chapters are so linear and railroaded that there are actually relatively few sidequests to do during them. The main story itself is very tied to its source material, and I would say that is often a chain around it's neck rather than any kind of boon. A lot of the story feels like fanservice pandering to show off Kenshiro fighting iconic bad guys who are just shoved into the story because they just wanted to have him fight that guy. The story is constantly being pulled between the traditional story and its iconic characters and the new alt-universe story the game presents that has the bulk of the narrative taking place around one city (Yakuza-style). The narrative and characters are definitely the weakest part of the game in a series that I associate with at least decent if not great narrative and character writing.
The side-activities are all pretty familiar to anyone who's played a more recent Yakuza game. You have the host club, bar tending, a rhythm game, colosseum fights, as well as (what I assume is a new addition) buggy racing. This game adds a big open map you can drive around in a buggy in outside the main city, but it feels a bit tacked on not because of how good the driving is (which is pretty fun), but because of the relative dearth of content to actually find out exploring the desert. The other mini-games are really only any more interesting than in the other games by virtue of the narrative finding an excuse for Kenshiro to reluctantly be doing these silly things instead of the main quest, which is actually quite funny (especially the rhythm and bartending games).
The main meat, and where I'd say this is actually one of the best in the Yakuza series, is the combat. This game has totally revamped how the heat action system works and it is SO fun. Although the game doesn't really have any items you can pick up, the heat actions are now tied to enemy positioning and enemy stuns. If you can get behind an enemy or stun them, you can press circle to activate one of Kenshiro's Fist of the North Star techniques for a bunch of extra damage through a small set of QTE actions. There's even a pre-technique other QTE you can do by pressing circle again with the right timing mid-stun and it'll pull off a quick-execution. The big techniques and quick-executions make combat flow super smoothly and a LOT of fun. It is definitely the main thing that makes this game stand out among others in the franchise alongside the FotNS fanservice.
The game's presentation is a bit of a mixed bag. While the character models look great, the cutscenes are beautiful, and the mid-battle in-game cutscenes are also amazing, the other parts of the game seem really oddly underanimated by contrast. The in-game cutscenes that are detached from battles have a very odd and robotic feel to them because characters are voiced but barely ever actually move. They're just standing stoically at one another speaking, and it very often looks really unnatural even for FotNS. It's not a game breaker or anything, and the stuff they nail does look GREAT, but it's something that really pulled me out of any immersion in the narrative/world pretty frequently.
Verdict: Recommended. This game isn't a brilliant Yakuza game, but it's a really fun video game. It's probably the second to last (just ahead of 6) of the 5 Yazkua games out on PS4 I'd recommend for someone's introduction to the series given how much better the writing is in 0-Kiwami 2, but if you're in the mood for a different kind of brawler RPG then this is one you'll probably enjoy, especially if you like ridiculous head-exploding nonsense that comes with the Fist of the North Star license.