This review contains spoilers
This game... man... it's hard to talk about this game. I love this game so damn much, It's really hard to transfer these feelings with words but I am gonna try
Story
Story is about, While Kiryu is in prison again because of y5, Haruka decides to leave orphanage "Again" because of her stupid mistake at y5. Then, When Kiryu leaves the prison and finds about Haruka and what she did, he decides to find her and return her to the orphanage again.
But suddenly Kiryu learns that Haruka have a baby now and Haruka herself is in a coma. Kiryu decides to find about who is the father of this baby is and also who is behind after the attack of Haruka's and damn... what a story that is... In this journey Kiryu will see how parents neglected their children to become killing machines, also we see Kiryu's trying to protect her kids yet again and that's damn emotional one to say the least.
I can safely say that story keep me engaged to the end fully, I couldn't stop playing. It's so heart wrenching story that at points I couldn't hold my tears as well......
Also fortunately Rgg really used plot twists right and they did not force them upon your throat. You slowly see build ups and pay off, the kind that I like.
One thing really interesting to me is, there is a lot of times I felt like I am playing the yakuza 3 remake , I am not kidding. Yeah story have nothing to do with yakuza 3 but structure and build up and even the cast down to the voice actors is so similar to the yakuza 3. It results with the feeling of this is not an entirely original product but still I am happy with their decision.
Because they finally made yakuza 3 with a proper pacing, action and slow moments with the right order and really fleshed out cast down to the antagonists. I even struggle to say if this game have the almost best story and pacing in the entire franchise.
Why did I say almost? Because Haruka takes really stupid decisions just like her mom(ehm my big criticism for the first game) in order for story to happen. They downgraded Haruka with y5, so at least it's consistent with that... So unfortunately she still acts the same way compared to the clever girl from y3/y4. If we think her as a teenager that could make sense but the thing is her characterization was about that one clever kid in the first place, since from the beginning... Until y5 ruin that is.
Actually, there was one thing I wished to have as an option in this game, that is giving us option to return to the older places at parts of the story to interact with other characters more, Haruka's hospital, orphanage, stardust etc. Old games used to do that ¯\ಠಠ_/¯ .
Normally I don't talk other people's opinions but I want to make an exception here. For some reason there are a lot of people that hates this story because it's not about older characters, it's about the new characters. I find this complaint a bit flimsy because since yakuza 4... no even yakuza 3 rgg makes games this way.
They always made the games soft reboots like since y3, new place, new cast, new gangs, new friends, only the main character is consistent, yeah I hate this decision too, but saying this game is bad just because your favourites not in it is a flimsy answer to me. I mean, yeah If we get a last goodbye for all of the characters we met up to this point(especially Okinawa people) I would be really damn happy even to the point of maybe exceeding yakuza 2 for me, but rgg doesn't do that since the y3. I would understand this game to become not your favourite but saying this is the worst game is a step too far in my opinion.
Other complaint I see is ending sucks and I don't agree with this opinion. Since from the beginning to the end we see a lot of parents that didn't give right decisions with their kids and because of that Kiryu makes sure this doesn't happen to his kids and that's all.
But one thing I agree on is... why Kiryu coming back with yakuza 7 and 8? These returns really gonna sour a lot of people including me with these decisions in my opinion. Because Kiryu's story really ends here, yet if it's for the fanservice reason Rgg can't hold themselves back then this can f### this game's story in the process.
Because of that I am scared to see if they are gonna destroy this ending or not in the future. Hopefully not. But if they do, then I will start to hate this ending like everybody else for this reason. (Edit: yep they ruined it)
Side content
This time side content is really small, there is 51 substories and 3 not so fleshed out minigames. One is fishing, it's works like a railshooter, it's fun but pretty short.
One is baseball, it's similar to y5 except you also have a team to train(so yeah it's boring too)
and lastly the clan creator, a strategy minigame, you see big arena with a lot of enemies in it using the topdown camera and you need to spawn heroes to beat them. For every beaten enemy, you get points to spawn more stronger enemies. It's fine in concept but you realize it's pretty unbalanced with certain heroes are too strong compared to the others(some of them have invincibility). So they are not the best additions in my opinion.
When it comes to substories on the other hand, they are pretty fun actually. Most of them uses fanservice to entice the player but still enjoyed seeing returning characters or previous stories.
But one certain thing I am pretty disappointed on is the Amon... he is a gimmick fight again and I dislike this. This time amon have an annoying shield so it's just about breaking the shield with the right tool that's it.
Even tho side content is pretty smaller in size, my priority is main content so, as long as it's not infuriating or doing something incredible, I won't add it to my final result of this game
Combat
This is the part that also a lot of people separated on. It's because rgg decided to ditch the style system. Now it's become a physics showcase game rather than comboing game. I am actually fine with decision because yakuza games doesn't demand hardcore knowledge to beat their games to begin with, so this didn't impacted me that much as long as I can get creative with it.
And of course there are a lot of ways to get creative with it especially with the crowd combat with how you can do the "domino effect" to enemies. But when you can "do it" in the first place
Because physics engine pretty buggy and how new stupid progression system limits you a lot and how the recovery animation works now makes sometimes hard to be creative
For example physics engine is fun to watch funny physics don't get me wrong but once you want to be creative it's not nice to see game gets breaking apart itself.
Also this impacts to bosses as well. Because new moveset is good but for bosses they are too slow in my opinion. I guess that's why they added back the overpowered dragon burst thingy from y5 and yeah it obliterates anything... and with trillions of heat actions in it too.
It's at least interruptible by enemies also you can still get damaged as well so at least it doesn't make it a cakewalk but... it also makes every boss fight a joke. Like literal joke. Some bosses can guard it but not if you stun them. So, if you do that it becomes an even bigger joke. Because of that I don't remember any boss fight moveset from this game I can tell you that.
But if you ask me this negative kinda balanced with how fun the group combat is.
But I can't say the same for the damn progression system. For some reason we have 5 different exp currency in this game. So you know what that means right? You need to farm 5 times just to upgrade yourself. Only way to gain is eating food...? And for what? Exploration? I really don't get it tbh.
Third complaint is how the recovery works now. For some reason if enemy is guarding, your attack "bounces" and you watch Kiryu to slowly reposition himself... "Every.. Single... Time...". This breaks the pace of the combat so much that, I started to think rgg didn't even test it themselves. It's that pacebreaking I am not kidding. Fortunately there is a mod for pc so you can remove it. But still... rgg why did you add this and also made it so damn slow??
I have to say I am a bit torn upon combat. Because when it works you can do magical moments with it, for example once you learn how to impact enemies with other enemies, a right move can make an entire group fall to the ground in a satisfying way.
But when it doesn't work, your combo gets ruined. So... Yeah it's not the best combat they did. But that doesn't mean it's not fun. It's still is. It's just physics glitches and not challenging boss fights kinda takes it down.
So yeah this is my thoughts. Combat and sidecontent maybe not fully fleshed out and not that satisfying because of how unbalanced they are but story is soo good on the other hand so I choose to give 5/5 for the reason how the story impacted me alone. I think yakuza 2 still the best for me but this game is right behind that.
Story
Story is about, While Kiryu is in prison again because of y5, Haruka decides to leave orphanage "Again" because of her stupid mistake at y5. Then, When Kiryu leaves the prison and finds about Haruka and what she did, he decides to find her and return her to the orphanage again.
But suddenly Kiryu learns that Haruka have a baby now and Haruka herself is in a coma. Kiryu decides to find about who is the father of this baby is and also who is behind after the attack of Haruka's and damn... what a story that is... In this journey Kiryu will see how parents neglected their children to become killing machines, also we see Kiryu's trying to protect her kids yet again and that's damn emotional one to say the least.
I can safely say that story keep me engaged to the end fully, I couldn't stop playing. It's so heart wrenching story that at points I couldn't hold my tears as well......
Also fortunately Rgg really used plot twists right and they did not force them upon your throat. You slowly see build ups and pay off, the kind that I like.
One thing really interesting to me is, there is a lot of times I felt like I am playing the yakuza 3 remake , I am not kidding. Yeah story have nothing to do with yakuza 3 but structure and build up and even the cast down to the voice actors is so similar to the yakuza 3. It results with the feeling of this is not an entirely original product but still I am happy with their decision.
Because they finally made yakuza 3 with a proper pacing, action and slow moments with the right order and really fleshed out cast down to the antagonists. I even struggle to say if this game have the almost best story and pacing in the entire franchise.
Why did I say almost? Because Haruka takes really stupid decisions just like her mom(ehm my big criticism for the first game) in order for story to happen. They downgraded Haruka with y5, so at least it's consistent with that... So unfortunately she still acts the same way compared to the clever girl from y3/y4. If we think her as a teenager that could make sense but the thing is her characterization was about that one clever kid in the first place, since from the beginning... Until y5 ruin that is.
Actually, there was one thing I wished to have as an option in this game, that is giving us option to return to the older places at parts of the story to interact with other characters more, Haruka's hospital, orphanage, stardust etc. Old games used to do that ¯\ಠಠ_/¯ .
Normally I don't talk other people's opinions but I want to make an exception here. For some reason there are a lot of people that hates this story because it's not about older characters, it's about the new characters. I find this complaint a bit flimsy because since yakuza 4... no even yakuza 3 rgg makes games this way.
They always made the games soft reboots like since y3, new place, new cast, new gangs, new friends, only the main character is consistent, yeah I hate this decision too, but saying this game is bad just because your favourites not in it is a flimsy answer to me. I mean, yeah If we get a last goodbye for all of the characters we met up to this point(especially Okinawa people) I would be really damn happy even to the point of maybe exceeding yakuza 2 for me, but rgg doesn't do that since the y3. I would understand this game to become not your favourite but saying this is the worst game is a step too far in my opinion.
Other complaint I see is ending sucks and I don't agree with this opinion. Since from the beginning to the end we see a lot of parents that didn't give right decisions with their kids and because of that Kiryu makes sure this doesn't happen to his kids and that's all.
But one thing I agree on is... why Kiryu coming back with yakuza 7 and 8? These returns really gonna sour a lot of people including me with these decisions in my opinion. Because Kiryu's story really ends here, yet if it's for the fanservice reason Rgg can't hold themselves back then this can f### this game's story in the process.
Because of that I am scared to see if they are gonna destroy this ending or not in the future. Hopefully not. But if they do, then I will start to hate this ending like everybody else for this reason. (Edit: yep they ruined it)
Side content
This time side content is really small, there is 51 substories and 3 not so fleshed out minigames. One is fishing, it's works like a railshooter, it's fun but pretty short.
One is baseball, it's similar to y5 except you also have a team to train(so yeah it's boring too)
and lastly the clan creator, a strategy minigame, you see big arena with a lot of enemies in it using the topdown camera and you need to spawn heroes to beat them. For every beaten enemy, you get points to spawn more stronger enemies. It's fine in concept but you realize it's pretty unbalanced with certain heroes are too strong compared to the others(some of them have invincibility). So they are not the best additions in my opinion.
When it comes to substories on the other hand, they are pretty fun actually. Most of them uses fanservice to entice the player but still enjoyed seeing returning characters or previous stories.
But one certain thing I am pretty disappointed on is the Amon... he is a gimmick fight again and I dislike this. This time amon have an annoying shield so it's just about breaking the shield with the right tool that's it.
Even tho side content is pretty smaller in size, my priority is main content so, as long as it's not infuriating or doing something incredible, I won't add it to my final result of this game
Combat
This is the part that also a lot of people separated on. It's because rgg decided to ditch the style system. Now it's become a physics showcase game rather than comboing game. I am actually fine with decision because yakuza games doesn't demand hardcore knowledge to beat their games to begin with, so this didn't impacted me that much as long as I can get creative with it.
And of course there are a lot of ways to get creative with it especially with the crowd combat with how you can do the "domino effect" to enemies. But when you can "do it" in the first place
Because physics engine pretty buggy and how new stupid progression system limits you a lot and how the recovery animation works now makes sometimes hard to be creative
For example physics engine is fun to watch funny physics don't get me wrong but once you want to be creative it's not nice to see game gets breaking apart itself.
Also this impacts to bosses as well. Because new moveset is good but for bosses they are too slow in my opinion. I guess that's why they added back the overpowered dragon burst thingy from y5 and yeah it obliterates anything... and with trillions of heat actions in it too.
It's at least interruptible by enemies also you can still get damaged as well so at least it doesn't make it a cakewalk but... it also makes every boss fight a joke. Like literal joke. Some bosses can guard it but not if you stun them. So, if you do that it becomes an even bigger joke. Because of that I don't remember any boss fight moveset from this game I can tell you that.
But if you ask me this negative kinda balanced with how fun the group combat is.
But I can't say the same for the damn progression system. For some reason we have 5 different exp currency in this game. So you know what that means right? You need to farm 5 times just to upgrade yourself. Only way to gain is eating food...? And for what? Exploration? I really don't get it tbh.
Third complaint is how the recovery works now. For some reason if enemy is guarding, your attack "bounces" and you watch Kiryu to slowly reposition himself... "Every.. Single... Time...". This breaks the pace of the combat so much that, I started to think rgg didn't even test it themselves. It's that pacebreaking I am not kidding. Fortunately there is a mod for pc so you can remove it. But still... rgg why did you add this and also made it so damn slow??
I have to say I am a bit torn upon combat. Because when it works you can do magical moments with it, for example once you learn how to impact enemies with other enemies, a right move can make an entire group fall to the ground in a satisfying way.
But when it doesn't work, your combo gets ruined. So... Yeah it's not the best combat they did. But that doesn't mean it's not fun. It's still is. It's just physics glitches and not challenging boss fights kinda takes it down.
So yeah this is my thoughts. Combat and sidecontent maybe not fully fleshed out and not that satisfying because of how unbalanced they are but story is soo good on the other hand so I choose to give 5/5 for the reason how the story impacted me alone. I think yakuza 2 still the best for me but this game is right behind that.