I can't believe my 1.5-year playthrough of the Yakuza series has finally come to an end. I am so satisfied with my decision to play Yakuza 0-6 in order before tackling this game. Set aside for a moment that Y:LAD features a protagonist who expresses a wider range of behaviors than Kiryu (praise be upon him), but we're also treated to the small dollop of cameos and easter eggs from previous entries that lead to some impactful emotional beats. Combine this with Ichiban Kasuga's own brand of energized charisma and the result is a handful of story moments that are nearly tear-inducing.
I opted for English voice acting mainly out of curiosity, as someone who was extremely impressed with the Japanese audio in previous games. It took about five minutes to get used to, but then I was fully on board. Great performance by the entire cast.
This is to be expected from a Yakuza game that introduces a new protagonist, but the power-fantasy element that I enjoyed so much in previous entries was dampened in Y:LAD. I love Ichiban, and he is clearly very strong, but there was a relative lack of NPCs hyping me up, or trembling in awe of my power like we saw with an up-and-coming Kiryu in Yakuza 0.
Mechanically, I thought the game could use some work. The classic RPG-style combat was a blast, but other elements from the genre fell flatter. I felt crafting and job management were tedious at times. Changing jobs, crafting equipment, and purchasing crafting materials each require travel to a special location, as opposed to being accessible from the pause menu. Y:LAD makes it quite easy to make money, and so I was inclined to craft/upgrade a lot of equipment in one sitting, which required fast traveling between three different locations a maddening number of times. Thankfully, with the PS5's non-existent load times, it wasn't a huge issue to fast travel to these locations, but it was still a bit of a bother. I would go so far as to call the progression system grueling.
With my main complaints out of the way, I really do want to stress how impressed I was with the transition from a lone-wolf protagonist to a story driven by a full party of well-written, interesting characters. This is ultimately why I enjoyed the social link minigame so much. The virtual tourism elements of Yakuza games are always fun, but especially so in this sprawling version of Yokohama, which never stopped being fun to explore.
In the end, this game accomplished the most important thing: It made me care about a Yakuza protagonist as much as I cared about the previous ones. It convinced me that the torch has been passed to a worthy successor. And it made me book a reservation for a peking duck dinner.
I opted for English voice acting mainly out of curiosity, as someone who was extremely impressed with the Japanese audio in previous games. It took about five minutes to get used to, but then I was fully on board. Great performance by the entire cast.
This is to be expected from a Yakuza game that introduces a new protagonist, but the power-fantasy element that I enjoyed so much in previous entries was dampened in Y:LAD. I love Ichiban, and he is clearly very strong, but there was a relative lack of NPCs hyping me up, or trembling in awe of my power like we saw with an up-and-coming Kiryu in Yakuza 0.
Mechanically, I thought the game could use some work. The classic RPG-style combat was a blast, but other elements from the genre fell flatter. I felt crafting and job management were tedious at times. Changing jobs, crafting equipment, and purchasing crafting materials each require travel to a special location, as opposed to being accessible from the pause menu. Y:LAD makes it quite easy to make money, and so I was inclined to craft/upgrade a lot of equipment in one sitting, which required fast traveling between three different locations a maddening number of times. Thankfully, with the PS5's non-existent load times, it wasn't a huge issue to fast travel to these locations, but it was still a bit of a bother. I would go so far as to call the progression system grueling.
With my main complaints out of the way, I really do want to stress how impressed I was with the transition from a lone-wolf protagonist to a story driven by a full party of well-written, interesting characters. This is ultimately why I enjoyed the social link minigame so much. The virtual tourism elements of Yakuza games are always fun, but especially so in this sprawling version of Yokohama, which never stopped being fun to explore.
In the end, this game accomplished the most important thing: It made me care about a Yakuza protagonist as much as I cared about the previous ones. It convinced me that the torch has been passed to a worthy successor. And it made me book a reservation for a peking duck dinner.