After nearly 6 years since my first outing with the series, I've finally 'caught up' for the moment. I still have Lost Judgment on the docket, and maybe I'll chew through that in the next few weeks or months- but I was hoping to at least get this done before the release of Gaiden later next month.
What's given here is an interesting conundrum however, as Yakuza 6 represents several entities in its' placement in the Yakuza series. Yakuza 6 acts as a follow up to the climatic, overindulgent Yakuza 5, released after two breakout introductory points for the western audience (one a full-on prequel and the other a remake of the first title), introduces the new Dragon engine, precedes both a spiritual sidequest in Judgment and a game with RPG literal sidequests in Yakuza LAD, and on top of all this feels most like a callback to Yakuza 3, above all else. Yakuza is a weird franchise; you can't even call it Yakuza anymore!
Yakuza 6 is a really good game, but one that I would be lying to say didn't feel like I was only half-invested in. I don't know if this kind of game would have worked better in a vacuum without knowing events in LAD or that Gaiden/LAD2 were on the horizon, but it felt very weird that this was the next step after Yakuza 5's brutally maximalist finale. Overall I was fine with the smaller scale, quite glad if anything. Onomichi is great, one of my favorite areas thus far in a Yakuza game. This and Okinawa absolutely feel like wonderful departures from the cramped, cluttered streets of Kamurocho, Sotenbori and Ijincho. I like that many of the ‘minigames’ exclusive to it are moreso little trinkets like the temple offerings and the blessing pulls, although I didn’t realize there were some that I just completely missed. Still, it’s an incredibly pretty locale and one with a lot of personality in its side paths, cluttered neighborhoods, ono michio… and scenic riverside.
While I do like how this game feels a lot slimmer than 5, there’s some side features I did miss from prior games- didn’t realize how many of these were gone until I wanted to try them out in 6, like the UFO catcher or trainers like Komaki.
While I do think there's a lot going for Yakuza 6 I'd be lying if I didn't say this was absolutely one of the easiest titles yet for me to just start glancing over to my phone- I hate doing this. Its storyline regarding the Iwami family and most of the last third’s beats are easily one of the more boring in the series- which is a shame because it involves a cast that I think works quite well. Again, strong strokes of Yakuza 3 resonate in the community of Onomichi. 3's departure from the main formula dealt the series a new hand in its more rural, bright skied, summer trip. However this contrasted quite well with its frantic invasions from Kiryu’s legacy- I thought the flip flopping between Kamurocho and Okinawa worked pretty well.
Meanwhile, in Yakuza 6 the town of Onomichi presents similarly the escapism of both Kiryu AND Haruka at vastly differing times of their lives, at separate points in physical time. This aspect of Onomichi I felt very strongly toward, however as the game ventured further and further toward the ‘secret of onomichi’ plot, the less interesting things got. This all expands into a finale chapter I think is one of the weakest in the series- with sprinkles of great stuff in there but constant naggings from this conspiracy that I’d honestly just ignored after the reveal. I kinda knew Someya’s schtick before going in but I didn’t know some of the finer details of what he’d be doing throughout the game so getting to those segments in the game was quite fun, I think Someya was a great part of 6.The biggest shame is that he ultimately gets overshadowed by this conspiracy/Iwami family dredge that just never tapped my neurons as much as Someya’s character. It was kinda funny getting to the finale and seeing our gang square up against a bunch of the villains from the game, glancing across all 3 of the major actors and thinking “man none of yall are cooking”. The most enjoyable part of this final fight is just Kiryu looking at the final boss and calling him “little baby”, at least.
Also I know this isn’t really supposed to be the game to start throwing in every cameo from the past titles -instead it feels like its trying to start distancing itself from that- but it did feel incredibly weird getting to that finale and finally getting to see Majima, Saejima and Daigo in the detournement. This wouldn’t feel too weird but like we see goddamn Pocket Fighter (although I do like his sidestory), the fighter maker dude from 4, Akiyama’s trainer from 4 and post-stardust Yuya? Yakuza constantly references back to each and every other game in the franchise but it did feel weird how even in this seemingly new chapter Kiryu just runs into these guys I had hoped we’d left to their own devices. At the very least it does leave behind a lot of the tropes and characters that had been starting to get stale.
Overall I did enjoy my time with Yakuza 6 and I think it’s a great follow up to 5’s gargantuan nature, but I had hoped it’d stuck the landing better in the latter half. Onomichi and the Hirose gang are really fun, and I think the entire Haruka chunk of the story was done incredibly well. It’s jump to a proper eighth gen title also brought a lot of nice improvements like auto saving, faster loads, more fun photo mode shenanigans, and just smoother, moment to moment gameplay. It mostly just feels like a transitional piece in the franchise- but it feels all the weirder considering the RGG-verse begins to branch and explode in a lot of other paths after this, into Judgment, Yakuza LAD, and even back to the past with games like Kiwami 2. Still, I’m glad I was able to chew through this one relatively quickly, at just under 30 hours.
What's given here is an interesting conundrum however, as Yakuza 6 represents several entities in its' placement in the Yakuza series. Yakuza 6 acts as a follow up to the climatic, overindulgent Yakuza 5, released after two breakout introductory points for the western audience (one a full-on prequel and the other a remake of the first title), introduces the new Dragon engine, precedes both a spiritual sidequest in Judgment and a game with RPG literal sidequests in Yakuza LAD, and on top of all this feels most like a callback to Yakuza 3, above all else. Yakuza is a weird franchise; you can't even call it Yakuza anymore!
Yakuza 6 is a really good game, but one that I would be lying to say didn't feel like I was only half-invested in. I don't know if this kind of game would have worked better in a vacuum without knowing events in LAD or that Gaiden/LAD2 were on the horizon, but it felt very weird that this was the next step after Yakuza 5's brutally maximalist finale. Overall I was fine with the smaller scale, quite glad if anything. Onomichi is great, one of my favorite areas thus far in a Yakuza game. This and Okinawa absolutely feel like wonderful departures from the cramped, cluttered streets of Kamurocho, Sotenbori and Ijincho. I like that many of the ‘minigames’ exclusive to it are moreso little trinkets like the temple offerings and the blessing pulls, although I didn’t realize there were some that I just completely missed. Still, it’s an incredibly pretty locale and one with a lot of personality in its side paths, cluttered neighborhoods, ono michio… and scenic riverside.
While I do like how this game feels a lot slimmer than 5, there’s some side features I did miss from prior games- didn’t realize how many of these were gone until I wanted to try them out in 6, like the UFO catcher or trainers like Komaki.
While I do think there's a lot going for Yakuza 6 I'd be lying if I didn't say this was absolutely one of the easiest titles yet for me to just start glancing over to my phone- I hate doing this. Its storyline regarding the Iwami family and most of the last third’s beats are easily one of the more boring in the series- which is a shame because it involves a cast that I think works quite well. Again, strong strokes of Yakuza 3 resonate in the community of Onomichi. 3's departure from the main formula dealt the series a new hand in its more rural, bright skied, summer trip. However this contrasted quite well with its frantic invasions from Kiryu’s legacy- I thought the flip flopping between Kamurocho and Okinawa worked pretty well.
Meanwhile, in Yakuza 6 the town of Onomichi presents similarly the escapism of both Kiryu AND Haruka at vastly differing times of their lives, at separate points in physical time. This aspect of Onomichi I felt very strongly toward, however as the game ventured further and further toward the ‘secret of onomichi’ plot, the less interesting things got. This all expands into a finale chapter I think is one of the weakest in the series- with sprinkles of great stuff in there but constant naggings from this conspiracy that I’d honestly just ignored after the reveal. I kinda knew Someya’s schtick before going in but I didn’t know some of the finer details of what he’d be doing throughout the game so getting to those segments in the game was quite fun, I think Someya was a great part of 6.The biggest shame is that he ultimately gets overshadowed by this conspiracy/Iwami family dredge that just never tapped my neurons as much as Someya’s character. It was kinda funny getting to the finale and seeing our gang square up against a bunch of the villains from the game, glancing across all 3 of the major actors and thinking “man none of yall are cooking”. The most enjoyable part of this final fight is just Kiryu looking at the final boss and calling him “little baby”, at least.
Also I know this isn’t really supposed to be the game to start throwing in every cameo from the past titles -instead it feels like its trying to start distancing itself from that- but it did feel incredibly weird getting to that finale and finally getting to see Majima, Saejima and Daigo in the detournement. This wouldn’t feel too weird but like we see goddamn Pocket Fighter (although I do like his sidestory), the fighter maker dude from 4, Akiyama’s trainer from 4 and post-stardust Yuya? Yakuza constantly references back to each and every other game in the franchise but it did feel weird how even in this seemingly new chapter Kiryu just runs into these guys I had hoped we’d left to their own devices. At the very least it does leave behind a lot of the tropes and characters that had been starting to get stale.
Overall I did enjoy my time with Yakuza 6 and I think it’s a great follow up to 5’s gargantuan nature, but I had hoped it’d stuck the landing better in the latter half. Onomichi and the Hirose gang are really fun, and I think the entire Haruka chunk of the story was done incredibly well. It’s jump to a proper eighth gen title also brought a lot of nice improvements like auto saving, faster loads, more fun photo mode shenanigans, and just smoother, moment to moment gameplay. It mostly just feels like a transitional piece in the franchise- but it feels all the weirder considering the RGG-verse begins to branch and explode in a lot of other paths after this, into Judgment, Yakuza LAD, and even back to the past with games like Kiwami 2. Still, I’m glad I was able to chew through this one relatively quickly, at just under 30 hours.