After the slog-fest that was Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4 goes full speed from the beginning to the point were it might have gone a bit too fast for it's own sake.
This entry introduces differenty fighting styles in the franchise: Kiryu being the all-rounder, Akiyama the super fast fighter, Saejima the wrecker with wide dodges instead of side-steps and tanking mechanics and Tanimura who I guess it's the "crowd control" character but I'm not sure that translates in the gameplay, he just does grabs and parries.
Story-wise it starts pretty strong with a mystery regarding a murder but after a few chapters (right around the middle of Tanimura's portion of the story), it starts to goof-out full force. I don't know if it is because the story was too fast-paced and they couldn't come around it or because they had already deviced the final battle set-piece and had to gear the story towards that all-out brawl, meaning the game uses of plot twist after plot twist, which by themselves are okay, but putting them all together is like in the same story one right after the other makes it seem like all the villains are cartoony and couldn't wait to seconds until getting their full victory before trying to backstab each other (you also have the guys who regret their backstabs and all that mumbo jumbo about honor and stuff).
Overall, kinda sad that the gameplay and the story don't complement each other the whole way through because they really fixed all the issues from the previous entry. With a more focused story it would be right on the same alley as Yakuza 0, but still, a solid entry for me.
This entry introduces differenty fighting styles in the franchise: Kiryu being the all-rounder, Akiyama the super fast fighter, Saejima the wrecker with wide dodges instead of side-steps and tanking mechanics and Tanimura who I guess it's the "crowd control" character but I'm not sure that translates in the gameplay, he just does grabs and parries.
Story-wise it starts pretty strong with a mystery regarding a murder but after a few chapters (right around the middle of Tanimura's portion of the story), it starts to goof-out full force. I don't know if it is because the story was too fast-paced and they couldn't come around it or because they had already deviced the final battle set-piece and had to gear the story towards that all-out brawl, meaning the game uses of plot twist after plot twist, which by themselves are okay, but putting them all together is like in the same story one right after the other makes it seem like all the villains are cartoony and couldn't wait to seconds until getting their full victory before trying to backstab each other (you also have the guys who regret their backstabs and all that mumbo jumbo about honor and stuff).
Overall, kinda sad that the gameplay and the story don't complement each other the whole way through because they really fixed all the issues from the previous entry. With a more focused story it would be right on the same alley as Yakuza 0, but still, a solid entry for me.