Yakuza 5 Review

As Japanese gamers have continued to enjoy three new entries to the Yakuza series on their PlayStation 4’s since 2012, we Western fans have been waiting impatiently to catch up. Almost three years to the day since the original Japanese release, Yakuza 5 has finally made it over to the West. And it’s a PlayStation 3 exclusive.

For me, playing a Yakuza game is like sitting down to watch a TV boxset. I don’t necessarily play for the gameplay, I play to see what happens next in the story. No other series of games has had me so hooked to the lives of its characters. Seeing how events help these characters grow means more to me than the events occurring themselves. Yakuza 5 is also paced like a great TV drama, with slow builds, mystery, and some cracking plot twists to pull you through Sega’s latest 50-hour monster.

Yakuza 5 continues the story of Kazuma Kiryu, the Dragon of Dojima. Once the head of the Tojo Clan, one of the largest yakuza groups in Japan, he now resides in Fukuoka as a taxi driver. His attempt to escape from his former life in the criminal underworld is shattered when an old friend appears in town and, shortly after, disappears. This friend is Daigo Dojima, the current leader of the Tojo Clan, and his sudden and suspicious absence brings the Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance to the brink of war.

Kazuma’s search for the truth is just a small part of the larger story of Yakuza 5. Like Yakuza 4 before, the story is told through the perspectives of multiple characters. Alongside Kazuma, both Taiga Saejima and Shun Akiyama -- introduced in Yakuza 4 -- return, with Haruka Sawamura -- a recurring character since the first game -- playable for the first time, and new guy Tatsuo Shinada. While each storyline plays out simultaneously, the game's structure only allows you to play through them one at a time. Depending on how you approach Yakuza 5, each character can take anywhere between five to fifteen hours to complete.

Each has their own plot, their own city, and their own side missions. These are greatly expanded over what we’ve seen in previous entries, taking the series to completely new places. For example, Kazuma has a dedicated street racing story putting him up against the Devil Killers, a local street gang; Saejima, after being rescued by a hunter at one time during his story, is introduced to hunting by the local villagers. Hours can be spent here in the mountains, hunting deer, bears and foxes.

If that isn’t enough, there are also one-off mission substories. An early example is a student who is worrying about passing his entry exams, so he asks you to help by quizzing you. No game has ever asked me how to calculate gravitational potential energy. These really helps to connect you to the world and are a nice alternative to the heavily melodramatic main plots. They’ve added markers to the map to show where these missions are too, which was a much needed addition. Also, a range of other activities can be found within Yakuza 5’s cities, with karaoke, bowling, batting, dining, and shopping being just a handful. My particular favourite discovery was the arcade, containing possibly the greatest rhythm action game of all time, Taiko Drum Master, and a version of Virtua Fighter 2 -- complete with competitive online capability. Yakuza 5 makes more of an effort than before to introduce these distractions by tying some into certain story missions, with a few being given a shot in the early hours of each character.

For the majority, Yakuza 5 is a beat-em-up, and a flamboyant one at that. Despite being nearly 50 by now, Kazuma throws himself around like an unwieldy toddler, taking out enemies through sheer force rather than any real tactical ability. As you fight, you build up a gauge to activate Heat moves -- and this is where Yakuza shines. Heat moves can be used with any weapon, against enemies in almost any position, and they are ridiculous. One of the first Heat moves I used in Yakuza 5 was while I was carrying a bicycle. Kazuma slams the bike to the road, cycles towards an enemy, and flips the bike up to knock the enemy skyward. As the poor guy hits the ground, Kazuma -- bike still in hand -- throws the bike on top of him, jumps into the air, and crushes the guy beneath his feet. Of course, while this would nearly kill a man in real life, the world of Yakuza is far kinder. After every fight, your enemy will climb to their feet, bloodied, to hand you a pocketful of cash or maybe an energy drink. No matter what you do to them -- throw them off a roof for instance -- they’ll never die, and are always very, very thankful to have met the legendary Dragon.

Saejima’s combat has emphasis on charging attacks at end of combos to increase damage, but he remains similar to Kazuma. On the other hand, Haruka’s story comes around halfway through the game, and totally surprised me. After two long sections full of melodrama and action, here comes an almost totally separate plotline about the entertainment industry. Haruka is in the running to win an opportunity to make it big as a pop idol. When she’s not competing on stage, she’s attending fan events and appearing on chat shows. Working like an intermission, this is an opportunity to chill out. There’s no danger. Instead of fighting punks on the streets, you can challenge other girls to dance battles. Dancing works like Taiko and other rhythm action games in that you hit buttons to the beat for points. You “damage” your opponent by performing better than them, through streaks and perfect timing, and heat moves can be used to perform special moves that can affect either you or the opponent, such as increasing your Heat gauge or reducing theirs.

Despite being released exclusively on the PlayStation 3, Yakuza 5 is still visually impressive at times. Running on a new engine, the characters look far more realistic than they did previously, with key characters having a far greater level of detail. The new look adds a more grounded feel, as Yakuza 3 in particular could feel like a cartoon at times. While visually impressive at times, Yakuza 5 still feels like a much older game than it is. Characters can look amazing, but at times you could be mistaken for thinking you’d accidentally started playing one of the first entries. To maintain annual releases in Japan, each game is built upon the foundations of the previous, and the lowest foundations are a decade old now -- a game that lacks autosave in 2015 is ridiculous and the combat lacks the depth you may expect after many years of Platinum releases.

Even with these negatives in mind, Yakuza 5 is brilliant, but won’t change the minds of anyone who hasn’t enjoyed the series before. While the story is more accessible to new players than ever before, there is no recap to introduce old characters. There aren’t many as each game’s story tends to work as a standalone, but you may initially feel lost. As a fan, I love Yakuza 5 and I don’t believe any other fans could be disappointed. The swansong of the PlayStation 3, a superb way to say farewell and make the move to the new generation. With three releases on PlayStation 4 already, and Yakuza 6 on the way, fingers crossed we see more of these wonderful games coming to the West. And please Sega, don’t take three years.