This review contains spoilers
Ah, yes...Yumekuza. I had no clue what to expect after 4.
Yakuza 5 is a story about a man struggling to do the right thing to protect his family, and running from his past. Yakuza 5 is a story about a young woman growing up and finding her place in the world through the dreams of others. Yakuza 5 is the story of a wayward assassin unsure of his place in the world, and wondering whether his own life is worth anything, whether what he's doing is right. Yakuza 5 is the story of a dying man leaving a legacy. A story of a woman living out her failed dreams through the idol she manages. Yakuza 5 is the story of...so much more.
Yakuza 5 is a game that requires patience. I've only played 0-5 so far, but of those games, 5 plays the most like an epic. That being said, treating it like an anthology was the only way for me to retain my sanity and not burn out on the game; while there is plenty going on, most of it doesn't seem connected at all until the end. It's best experienced when you treat every part as its own small story; playing this game only caring about the bigger picture is a good way to grow very frustrated with this game very quickly.
The first part of the game - Kazuma Kiryu's part - is the effective honeymoon phase of the game. You find yourself in a charming town in Fukuoka, and it's so very lively and detailed. You begin with a night on the town with your manager at a taxi firm, and immediately you get a vibe for how Nagasugai feels. Over the course of this part, it doesn't lose its charm at all; there's plenty to do and see, and it comes with a "side story" with its own plot centred around Kiryu's colleagues - the taxi driver/racer parts of the game, which control very well. Kiryu himself is on at the top of his game too, which translates to a very smooth combat experience, and enemies are just the right difficulty. There is one crack that shows in all but one part, however - the streets are packed with enemy encounters. You can walk to avoid them, but this slows your experience down dramatically, and so just as with Saejima's part in 4, enemy encounters can often kill your drive to explore the town if you're not in the mood.
Once the part ends, just as things heat up - you move to the next part to begin another introduction, as with 4.
This is where things can wear if you try too hard to blitz through the game. The next part is especially slow, and seems to have nothing to do with the previous part; this is a pattern that continues until the finale - it's as if you're playing another game.
That's not to say these parts don't have their own enjoyment, however - I enjoyed the hunting parts of the game, and warmed up to the characters just fine. In fact, Yakuza 5 does a very good job of introducing and fleshing out the characters of every part, be it the ex-detective you meet in prison, the jovial taxi firm CEO, the loan shark who finds himself more of a life coach than a threat, or the embattled idol manager struggling to learn the ins and outs of the role left to her by those before her. These people keep their respective parts afloat, and are very much welcome wherever they show up. They're what make the game worth playing. I was more annoyed than anything at first about having to play Shinada's part, given I had no clue who he was and why I had to play his part, but it didn't take long before I loved him just as I did everyone else. The people are what make it worth it - more detail on this later.
The thing is; Yakuza 5's storyline is...just as much of a mess as 4's, if not more. It feels like everyone betrays someone at some point, and several people appear to change allegiances more than once. So many people have grand reveals that they're a plant, or they were working for a certain person all along, or they were taking orders from a bigger fish. It gets ridiculous, and can harm your attachments to later characters if you're conditioned to expect betrayal around every corner. They're often fairly last minute, meaning many fights lack emotional impact as it's either with someone a character only met 5 minutes ago or with someone who showed little to no signs of impending betrayal. It feels like characters change motivations every time someone new asks them for an explanation as to why they're doing what they're doing. Not to mention that each part before the finale is essentially unrelated to the previous parts; hence why I say it plays out like an anthology for most of the game.
But this is the thing; around part 3, it becomes clear the storyline is not the central focus; it's the theme, and it becomes very obvious, because the game beats you over the head with the word over and over and over - it's dreams. But this is helped greatly with the game's characterisation, and adds plenty of emotion to each scene, as well as making the player care about what each protagonist wants out of life. You don't play Yakuza 5 for the story - you play it to see how characters react to it. THIS is what makes it worth it. It's why Haruka's parts are my favourite; they distil this theme so very effectively, more so than the other parts. For this reason, she can be considered one of the central characters of the storyline, as everyone bands together to see her dream come true. It's her we want to see succeed; the young woman we've watched grow up over the course of the last few games. While I say she's one of the central characters, it's impossible to nail down a true central character - and that's because it's not just about her dreams. It's about everyone's dreams, and how they're passed down to others, which is stated in more than a few cheesy speeches about passing down dreams. I'm not 100% sure what characters are on about when they do that, but I find it heartwarming anyway.
The finale is where story, theme and characterisation FINALLY come together in the most satisfying of ways, and the big picture finally starts to form, and you get to see how everything is connected and how it all comes together. The payoff is absolutely worth slogging through the rest of the game for, even if so much is unexplained or contradicted in the story, because this is where emotional stakes are at their highest. It falters a bit, ESPECIALLY with the final part, but it's seen through until the end.
The thing is, you have to let this happen. It's very much not recommended to try and power through the game to get to the end as fast as possible. Instead, savour each part as it is; its minigames, its town, its cast of characters. It dwarfs 0 (which is praised for the same reason) by a long shot in this regard, and gameplay shows remarkable improvement from the previous installments, and in places has still not been surpassed by later entries. UI design and aesthetic remains in an awkward in-between between "old" and "new" Yakuza, made painfully obvious if you play 6 afterwards, but "dated" is not a word I would use at all. Voice acting is on top form as always, soundtrack is solid (even if karaoke could stand to have a wider selection, which is something 0 did anyway), and towns are beautifully designed and detailed. If I could say one thing about Yakuza 5...it's a hell of a ride.
Before I finished this game, I was so ready to give this 3 stars and quickly move onto 6 after a break. I grew frustrated so many times, I considered quitting so many times, but the finale made it so very worth it. I teared up, I sighed, I gasped with delight, I'd become tense with concentration trying to figure out things, I laughed, I got annoyed, and everything in between. Say what you will of Yakuza 5; it's a game that can make you feel everything. The only problem is that it takes too long to get to the point, hence why I don't give this 5 stars. But otherwise? I'm fine with it.
Yakuza 5 is a story about a man struggling to do the right thing to protect his family, and running from his past. Yakuza 5 is a story about a young woman growing up and finding her place in the world through the dreams of others. Yakuza 5 is the story of a wayward assassin unsure of his place in the world, and wondering whether his own life is worth anything, whether what he's doing is right. Yakuza 5 is the story of a dying man leaving a legacy. A story of a woman living out her failed dreams through the idol she manages. Yakuza 5 is the story of...so much more.
Yakuza 5 is a game that requires patience. I've only played 0-5 so far, but of those games, 5 plays the most like an epic. That being said, treating it like an anthology was the only way for me to retain my sanity and not burn out on the game; while there is plenty going on, most of it doesn't seem connected at all until the end. It's best experienced when you treat every part as its own small story; playing this game only caring about the bigger picture is a good way to grow very frustrated with this game very quickly.
The first part of the game - Kazuma Kiryu's part - is the effective honeymoon phase of the game. You find yourself in a charming town in Fukuoka, and it's so very lively and detailed. You begin with a night on the town with your manager at a taxi firm, and immediately you get a vibe for how Nagasugai feels. Over the course of this part, it doesn't lose its charm at all; there's plenty to do and see, and it comes with a "side story" with its own plot centred around Kiryu's colleagues - the taxi driver/racer parts of the game, which control very well. Kiryu himself is on at the top of his game too, which translates to a very smooth combat experience, and enemies are just the right difficulty. There is one crack that shows in all but one part, however - the streets are packed with enemy encounters. You can walk to avoid them, but this slows your experience down dramatically, and so just as with Saejima's part in 4, enemy encounters can often kill your drive to explore the town if you're not in the mood.
Once the part ends, just as things heat up - you move to the next part to begin another introduction, as with 4.
This is where things can wear if you try too hard to blitz through the game. The next part is especially slow, and seems to have nothing to do with the previous part; this is a pattern that continues until the finale - it's as if you're playing another game.
That's not to say these parts don't have their own enjoyment, however - I enjoyed the hunting parts of the game, and warmed up to the characters just fine. In fact, Yakuza 5 does a very good job of introducing and fleshing out the characters of every part, be it the ex-detective you meet in prison, the jovial taxi firm CEO, the loan shark who finds himself more of a life coach than a threat, or the embattled idol manager struggling to learn the ins and outs of the role left to her by those before her. These people keep their respective parts afloat, and are very much welcome wherever they show up. They're what make the game worth playing. I was more annoyed than anything at first about having to play Shinada's part, given I had no clue who he was and why I had to play his part, but it didn't take long before I loved him just as I did everyone else. The people are what make it worth it - more detail on this later.
The thing is; Yakuza 5's storyline is...just as much of a mess as 4's, if not more. It feels like everyone betrays someone at some point, and several people appear to change allegiances more than once. So many people have grand reveals that they're a plant, or they were working for a certain person all along, or they were taking orders from a bigger fish. It gets ridiculous, and can harm your attachments to later characters if you're conditioned to expect betrayal around every corner. They're often fairly last minute, meaning many fights lack emotional impact as it's either with someone a character only met 5 minutes ago or with someone who showed little to no signs of impending betrayal. It feels like characters change motivations every time someone new asks them for an explanation as to why they're doing what they're doing. Not to mention that each part before the finale is essentially unrelated to the previous parts; hence why I say it plays out like an anthology for most of the game.
But this is the thing; around part 3, it becomes clear the storyline is not the central focus; it's the theme, and it becomes very obvious, because the game beats you over the head with the word over and over and over - it's dreams. But this is helped greatly with the game's characterisation, and adds plenty of emotion to each scene, as well as making the player care about what each protagonist wants out of life. You don't play Yakuza 5 for the story - you play it to see how characters react to it. THIS is what makes it worth it. It's why Haruka's parts are my favourite; they distil this theme so very effectively, more so than the other parts. For this reason, she can be considered one of the central characters of the storyline, as everyone bands together to see her dream come true. It's her we want to see succeed; the young woman we've watched grow up over the course of the last few games. While I say she's one of the central characters, it's impossible to nail down a true central character - and that's because it's not just about her dreams. It's about everyone's dreams, and how they're passed down to others, which is stated in more than a few cheesy speeches about passing down dreams. I'm not 100% sure what characters are on about when they do that, but I find it heartwarming anyway.
The finale is where story, theme and characterisation FINALLY come together in the most satisfying of ways, and the big picture finally starts to form, and you get to see how everything is connected and how it all comes together. The payoff is absolutely worth slogging through the rest of the game for, even if so much is unexplained or contradicted in the story, because this is where emotional stakes are at their highest. It falters a bit, ESPECIALLY with the final part, but it's seen through until the end.
The thing is, you have to let this happen. It's very much not recommended to try and power through the game to get to the end as fast as possible. Instead, savour each part as it is; its minigames, its town, its cast of characters. It dwarfs 0 (which is praised for the same reason) by a long shot in this regard, and gameplay shows remarkable improvement from the previous installments, and in places has still not been surpassed by later entries. UI design and aesthetic remains in an awkward in-between between "old" and "new" Yakuza, made painfully obvious if you play 6 afterwards, but "dated" is not a word I would use at all. Voice acting is on top form as always, soundtrack is solid (even if karaoke could stand to have a wider selection, which is something 0 did anyway), and towns are beautifully designed and detailed. If I could say one thing about Yakuza 5...it's a hell of a ride.
Before I finished this game, I was so ready to give this 3 stars and quickly move onto 6 after a break. I grew frustrated so many times, I considered quitting so many times, but the finale made it so very worth it. I teared up, I sighed, I gasped with delight, I'd become tense with concentration trying to figure out things, I laughed, I got annoyed, and everything in between. Say what you will of Yakuza 5; it's a game that can make you feel everything. The only problem is that it takes too long to get to the point, hence why I don't give this 5 stars. But otherwise? I'm fine with it.