Yakuza 5 is when the series’ scope increased massively. It makes sense - Yakuza was rapidly becoming one of Sega’s super star franchises, especially in Japan. And the series’ creator, Toshihiro Nagoshi, was becoming something of a video game rockstar at the time. Striking while the iron was hot (and with no reason to stop, really), Yakuza 5 released only two and a half years later after Yakuza 4, now developed by RGG Studio - an evolution of Amusement Vision, a studio Nagoshi headed.
In my eyes, Yakuza 5 releasing that shortly is nothing short of impressive. Sure, two years and a half is a lot of time, but Yakuza 5’s scope is insanely impressive: five characters, four hub worlds, and, more importantly, a new engine that’d go on to be used for Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami. One thing at a time, though.
I’m a big fan of Yakuza 5’s storyline. It somehow manages to be busier than Yakuza 4’s, but the characters aren’t idiots this time and the new cast members are actually memorable! That’s not to say it’s perfect, far from it - the final boss comes out of nowhere (albeit once I stepped back and pieced some story beats together I ended up quite liking his involvement), and the pacing shifts speeds constantly.
The main theme of this game’s story is dreams, and dear lord, the game beats you over the head with it; it’s impossible to walk away from this game without knowing what “yume” means. I don’t think it’s a bad theme - in fact, I find it fits Yakuza’s theme of fighting for yourself excellently -, but this game drives it way into the ground to the point of memeability.
Moving on, we have five characters to play with. Tanimura is gone, sadly, but I like the new additions. In play order:
- Kazuma Kiryu, the series’ main protagonist, is the first character you play as. His moveset is great! Although not as polished as in Yakuza 0 or Kiwami, the bones are still here, and they work splendidly, and his Climax Heat Move, Dragon Spirit, is a great way to change up his standard gameplay, allowing for him to become invulnerable, teleport, and utilize a new brutal combo at the cost of his Heat Gauge.
- Taiga Saejima is one of two returning protagonists from Yakuza 4, and he plays about the same as that game but better, with his moveset consisting of powerful-yet-slow kicks and punches, with a separate focus on charge attacks. His Climax Heat move is Tiger Puppetry, which allows for him to grab an enemy’s legs and swing them around, at the cost of his Heat Gauge. While considerably more situational than Dragon Spirit, it’s a perfect addition to his moveset and rewards good execution.
- Haruka Sawamura, Kiryu’s adopted daughter, is playable for the first time in the series. Her playstyle is completely different though, as she doesn’t fight - instead, she must play several (primarily rhythm) minigames to up her stats so she can defeat rival idol group T-Set. These minigames are (mostly) pretty fun, although her section feels incredibly slow compared to everyone else’s.
- Shun Akiyama from Yakuza 4 returns as the fourth playable character, with his moveset being about the same as that game, although with the inclusion of Launch Strike for his Climax Heat move - by pressing triangle, Akiyama kicks an opponent into the air and delivers a powerful kick combo before slamming them back to the ground, although at the cost of his Heat Gauge.
- And finally, Tatsuo Shinada is the main new protagonist. Shinada’s moveset is unrefined and grapple-based, although he is already very proficient with weapons, rendering them his primary means of damage. His Climax Heat move is My Meteor Tackle, in which he can grab and rush forwards with an enemy in his grasp at the cost of Heat. Definitely the least useful Climax Heat mechanic in this game, but it still has its uses.
Overall, the combat is excellent! The new engine makes it more fluid than the previous games, and the new Climax Heat moves make for very rewarding additions to the movesets. Haruka’s rhythm games and concert battles are mostly just alright (some are completely forgettable), but the music more than makes up for it - I love me some cheesy energetic idol J-Pop.
In addition, everyone (which includes Haruka, albeit hers works differently) now boasts Climax Heat Actions. A second meter can be filled up by performing Heat Actions, and when fully charged, the player can execute a tremendously powerful Heat Action. A very good universal addition that rewards exploring with Heat Actions; not sure why this was removed.
The game also features four cities to explore, whereas the previous games had two at best (Sotenbori in Yakuza 2 and Ryukyu in Yakuza 3). They’re fully realized hub worlds, including their own substories and activities, although only each city’s respective character can visit it - only Kiryu can visit Nagasugai, only Saejima can visit Tsukimino, you get the gist. Kinda lame, but I also wasn’t expecting each city to have substories for everyone, so fair enough move.
The soundtrack is excellent, too, as I expect from this franchise. A lot of rock with some more funk-esque influences, plus some licensed tracks and even a track by Hideki Naganuma! (Shame it only plays once, though…)
Where my praise slows down a bit is with the amount of bloat this game has. Every character (barring Haruka and Akiyama) has a side game. Kiryu has taxi driving/racing missions, Saejima has a hunting game, and Shinada has a baseball game. These are full side games with their own miniature storylines in them, and if one of them isn’t your cup of tea, then you’re pretty much screwed.
Plus, these games aren’t extremely polished. The racing minigame, while it worked well enough, is nowhere near as tight-controlling as I’d prefer, and Saejima’s hunting minigame is too convoluted and slow-paced for my liking. The rest of the minigames are back, and they’re what you’d expect (although there’s a few weird ones, like chicken racing for Shinada). Plus, this game has my favorite Karaoke song selection to boot!
To put it succinctly - this is the worst Yakuza game to 100%.
Substories this time are about the same deal you’d expect from the other games. There’s 75 (plus the standard superboss substory at the very end) of them - pretty good number, totalling 15 per character. Only a few jump out as very memorable, though; the one with Naganuma’s contribution is the one I immediately think of.
To conclude: Yakuza 5 is a game defined by its scope. Although it suffers from a heavy amount of bloat, this is the most complete Yakuza package, albeit it’s easy to suffer from series burnout in this entry - I’d recommend taking some time after beating Yakuza 4 before jumping into this game.
One of my favorites in the franchise.
In my eyes, Yakuza 5 releasing that shortly is nothing short of impressive. Sure, two years and a half is a lot of time, but Yakuza 5’s scope is insanely impressive: five characters, four hub worlds, and, more importantly, a new engine that’d go on to be used for Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami. One thing at a time, though.
I’m a big fan of Yakuza 5’s storyline. It somehow manages to be busier than Yakuza 4’s, but the characters aren’t idiots this time and the new cast members are actually memorable! That’s not to say it’s perfect, far from it - the final boss comes out of nowhere (albeit once I stepped back and pieced some story beats together I ended up quite liking his involvement), and the pacing shifts speeds constantly.
The main theme of this game’s story is dreams, and dear lord, the game beats you over the head with it; it’s impossible to walk away from this game without knowing what “yume” means. I don’t think it’s a bad theme - in fact, I find it fits Yakuza’s theme of fighting for yourself excellently -, but this game drives it way into the ground to the point of memeability.
Moving on, we have five characters to play with. Tanimura is gone, sadly, but I like the new additions. In play order:
- Kazuma Kiryu, the series’ main protagonist, is the first character you play as. His moveset is great! Although not as polished as in Yakuza 0 or Kiwami, the bones are still here, and they work splendidly, and his Climax Heat Move, Dragon Spirit, is a great way to change up his standard gameplay, allowing for him to become invulnerable, teleport, and utilize a new brutal combo at the cost of his Heat Gauge.
- Taiga Saejima is one of two returning protagonists from Yakuza 4, and he plays about the same as that game but better, with his moveset consisting of powerful-yet-slow kicks and punches, with a separate focus on charge attacks. His Climax Heat move is Tiger Puppetry, which allows for him to grab an enemy’s legs and swing them around, at the cost of his Heat Gauge. While considerably more situational than Dragon Spirit, it’s a perfect addition to his moveset and rewards good execution.
- Haruka Sawamura, Kiryu’s adopted daughter, is playable for the first time in the series. Her playstyle is completely different though, as she doesn’t fight - instead, she must play several (primarily rhythm) minigames to up her stats so she can defeat rival idol group T-Set. These minigames are (mostly) pretty fun, although her section feels incredibly slow compared to everyone else’s.
- Shun Akiyama from Yakuza 4 returns as the fourth playable character, with his moveset being about the same as that game, although with the inclusion of Launch Strike for his Climax Heat move - by pressing triangle, Akiyama kicks an opponent into the air and delivers a powerful kick combo before slamming them back to the ground, although at the cost of his Heat Gauge.
- And finally, Tatsuo Shinada is the main new protagonist. Shinada’s moveset is unrefined and grapple-based, although he is already very proficient with weapons, rendering them his primary means of damage. His Climax Heat move is My Meteor Tackle, in which he can grab and rush forwards with an enemy in his grasp at the cost of Heat. Definitely the least useful Climax Heat mechanic in this game, but it still has its uses.
Overall, the combat is excellent! The new engine makes it more fluid than the previous games, and the new Climax Heat moves make for very rewarding additions to the movesets. Haruka’s rhythm games and concert battles are mostly just alright (some are completely forgettable), but the music more than makes up for it - I love me some cheesy energetic idol J-Pop.
In addition, everyone (which includes Haruka, albeit hers works differently) now boasts Climax Heat Actions. A second meter can be filled up by performing Heat Actions, and when fully charged, the player can execute a tremendously powerful Heat Action. A very good universal addition that rewards exploring with Heat Actions; not sure why this was removed.
The game also features four cities to explore, whereas the previous games had two at best (Sotenbori in Yakuza 2 and Ryukyu in Yakuza 3). They’re fully realized hub worlds, including their own substories and activities, although only each city’s respective character can visit it - only Kiryu can visit Nagasugai, only Saejima can visit Tsukimino, you get the gist. Kinda lame, but I also wasn’t expecting each city to have substories for everyone, so fair enough move.
The soundtrack is excellent, too, as I expect from this franchise. A lot of rock with some more funk-esque influences, plus some licensed tracks and even a track by Hideki Naganuma! (Shame it only plays once, though…)
Where my praise slows down a bit is with the amount of bloat this game has. Every character (barring Haruka and Akiyama) has a side game. Kiryu has taxi driving/racing missions, Saejima has a hunting game, and Shinada has a baseball game. These are full side games with their own miniature storylines in them, and if one of them isn’t your cup of tea, then you’re pretty much screwed.
Plus, these games aren’t extremely polished. The racing minigame, while it worked well enough, is nowhere near as tight-controlling as I’d prefer, and Saejima’s hunting minigame is too convoluted and slow-paced for my liking. The rest of the minigames are back, and they’re what you’d expect (although there’s a few weird ones, like chicken racing for Shinada). Plus, this game has my favorite Karaoke song selection to boot!
To put it succinctly - this is the worst Yakuza game to 100%.
Substories this time are about the same deal you’d expect from the other games. There’s 75 (plus the standard superboss substory at the very end) of them - pretty good number, totalling 15 per character. Only a few jump out as very memorable, though; the one with Naganuma’s contribution is the one I immediately think of.
To conclude: Yakuza 5 is a game defined by its scope. Although it suffers from a heavy amount of bloat, this is the most complete Yakuza package, albeit it’s easy to suffer from series burnout in this entry - I’d recommend taking some time after beating Yakuza 4 before jumping into this game.
One of my favorites in the franchise.