Another entry in the "Famous Franchise Puts Minimal Effort Into a PSP Sidegame" collection.
This is a hell of a budget title, where the budget went into the combat system and OST. Backgrounds are screenshots from the game, the fixed camera is the jankiest it's ever been, and the battle camera sometimes decides to cancel your movement because of a bad angle. It's really frustrating. And yet, it's pretty fun once you get it. It's also only about 15-20 hours if you don't want to grind styles (I did) or beat the Kamurocho Strongest Ranking (I did) or collect all the cats (meow). My file was 28 hours because of that.
Tatsuya is a nice contrast to Yakuza MCs usually being almost perfect good guys. I was foolish to expect Takiya Genji just because they look identical (and I would've preferred Genji than Tatsuya) but that's my fault.
The music is insanely good, courstesy of Naganuma. I don't think I've enjoyed a Yakuza OST this much since Y0. Favorite track is SO UNUSUAL. In contrast, the voice acting is pretty weak, kind of amateurish. Some characters sound like they were reading their lines in the office.
The usual Yakuza plot conveniences and inane decisions so bros can fight shirtless is also here, but I quite like how it turned out. Final boss is a massive letdown.
I like the combat a lot. It's way too complex to describe in a review, but basically, it forces you to think and watch your opponent 24/7 because every missed move gets countered HARD. You've got tons of styles, movesets, and special moves you can choose from, and they all look cool despite being very standard stuff.
Downside is every chapter boss is a fight in a tiny UFC cage and the trash camera makes some specific boss moves quite unfair. In contrast, the final boss is in a large arena and this makes him a joke.
If you've got nothing to do and/or are tired of the usual Yakuza 200 hour games, this is a nice change, assuming you can get past the flaws. At the very least, you should listen to the OST.
This is a hell of a budget title, where the budget went into the combat system and OST. Backgrounds are screenshots from the game, the fixed camera is the jankiest it's ever been, and the battle camera sometimes decides to cancel your movement because of a bad angle. It's really frustrating. And yet, it's pretty fun once you get it. It's also only about 15-20 hours if you don't want to grind styles (I did) or beat the Kamurocho Strongest Ranking (I did) or collect all the cats (meow). My file was 28 hours because of that.
Tatsuya is a nice contrast to Yakuza MCs usually being almost perfect good guys. I was foolish to expect Takiya Genji just because they look identical (and I would've preferred Genji than Tatsuya) but that's my fault.
The music is insanely good, courstesy of Naganuma. I don't think I've enjoyed a Yakuza OST this much since Y0. Favorite track is SO UNUSUAL. In contrast, the voice acting is pretty weak, kind of amateurish. Some characters sound like they were reading their lines in the office.
The usual Yakuza plot conveniences and inane decisions so bros can fight shirtless is also here, but I quite like how it turned out. Final boss is a massive letdown.
I like the combat a lot. It's way too complex to describe in a review, but basically, it forces you to think and watch your opponent 24/7 because every missed move gets countered HARD. You've got tons of styles, movesets, and special moves you can choose from, and they all look cool despite being very standard stuff.
Downside is every chapter boss is a fight in a tiny UFC cage and the trash camera makes some specific boss moves quite unfair. In contrast, the final boss is in a large arena and this makes him a joke.
If you've got nothing to do and/or are tired of the usual Yakuza 200 hour games, this is a nice change, assuming you can get past the flaws. At the very least, you should listen to the OST.