I've been a long time fan of the Yakuza games since the original on the PS2 but Yakuza 5 is where the magic is starting to wear off for me. When I think properly about it, it's better than 3 and 4 but there's just so much fluff making this game run on at least 15 hours longer than it needs to.

The gimmick of having 4 (or 5, this time!) main characters just ends up leading to a convoluted story where I'll end up forgetting what yakuza conspiracy is going on now or who most of the side characters are.

In the moment the melodrama is interesting, but most of the cast don't really get a satisfying wrap-up and I ended up forgetting why I was meant to care about half of the plot threads that took a little too long to intertwine.

Plus Yakuza combat has kind of never been good, so I'm looking forward to catching up to 7 / Like A Dragon when it'll change completely!

Reviewed on Apr 12, 2024


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