Recent reviews by Fleming Redbird

Yakuza 5 Review

Part 1: The Gameplay

Yakuza 5’s Gameplay was not enjoyable at launch, the game was very poorly optimized, and this has been recently fixed with a patch update, which made the Gameplay much more enjoyable.

In my opinion, the game feels similar to Yakuza 0’s Gameplay as Yakuza 5 is built on an earlier version of Yakuza 0’s Engine.

The Combat is nice and fluid, and easy to learn, but can be harder to master, the combat system is not as Stiff as Yakuza 3’s and Yakuza 4’s Combat System.

There are also Five Playable Characters, and Four of them can enter combat situations.

Kiryu: His iconic fighting style is still present, with the abilities to learn better moves such as the Tiger Drop or the Komaki Parry.

Saejima: A More brute force Moveset. He can take heavy objects like Scooters and use them in combat, you can also charge up a damaging attack after a successful combo.

Akiyama: His moveset is comprised of mostly Kick based attacks. He feels very satisfying to play as. But he does not have counters to being grabbed unlike Kiryu and Saejima

Shinada: It’s interesting, but I’m not a fan of his moveset. Weak damage, but a lot of flexibility, he has access to an Iron Pipe that he keeps as a weapon that he can always use, he also refuses to use Baseball Bats in combat for Character Story reasons.

Part 2: The Minigames

Yakuza 5 has a lot of minigames, from hunting in the mountains as Saejima, driving a Taxi as Kiryu, all the way to being a Japanese Idol, Yakuza 5 features a lot of variety in its mini games.

You got some of the classics like Karaoke and Fishing

But you get a lot of new minigames, such as:

Air Hockey
Cochins Cup Classic
Comedy Team
Darts
Driving Range
Pachinko
Pool
Shogi
Slots
Tatsuya Noodles
Winter Combat

And much more.

There are also arcade games available in the Club Sega’s on the Maps.

My personal 2 favorites are the UFO Catchers and the Drum Master game.

Part 3: Characters

Yakuza 5 has some great characters.

From Nakajima, a Taxi company president that hired Kiryu when he moved, Nakajima has also an interesting backstory, all the way to Kurosawa, an Osaka Police Detective which has some plans that I will not spoil here.

There are also returning characters from other games:
Diago Dojima: The Tojo Clan’s Sixth Chairman.

Goro Majima: The Patriarch of the Majima Family and President of Majima Construction, but also a great Anti-Hero, Majima throughout all the Yakuza games is a greatly written character.

And more characters.

Part 4: The Protagonists

Yakuza 5 has Five Playable Characters:

Kazuma Kiryu:

Kazuma Kiryu is the most recurring protagonist of the Yakuza series. He is featured as the main protagonist and playable character in Yakuza/Yakuza Kiwami, Yakuza 2/Yakuza Kiwami 2, Yakuza 3 and Yakuza 6. He is featured as one of multiple main protagonists and playable characters in Yakuza 0, Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5.
His legendary accomplishments and ascent through the ranks of the Tojo Clan's Dojima Family, as well as the tattoo of a dragon on his back, have earned him the nickname "The Dragon of Dojima" He was the Fourth Chairman of the Tojo Clan, and previously managed the Morning Glory Orphanage, which was featured in Yakuza 3 and Briefly in Yakuza 4.

Taiga Saejima:

Taiga Saejima is a recurring protagonist and character in the series. He appears as one of multiple main protagonists and playable characters in both Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5. He appears in flashbacks in Yakuza 0 and is a supporting character in Yakuza 6. He is a former member of the Sasai Family of the Tojo Clan, and later became the patriarch of the Saejima Family. He is the sworn brother of Goro Majima.
Saejima became a legend amongst yakuza for carrying out the 1985 Ueno Seiwa massacre, in which eighteen key members of the organization were slain.

Shun Akiyama:

Shun Akiyama is one of the main playable protagonists of Yakuza 4, Yakuza: Dead Souls a PS3 Spinoff released in 2010, and Yakuza 5.
He is a successful entrepreneur known as "The Lifeline of Kamurocho" due to his habit of lending money to people with nowhere left to turn. He runs Sky Finance, as well as Club Elise, a hostess club which he commonly uses in his tests to earn a loan.

Tatsuo Shinada:

Tatsuo Shinada is one of the five main protagonists in Yakuza 5. He is a former player for the Nagoya Wyverns and currently works as an adult entertainment writer.

He takes the spot of Tanimura from Yakuza 4.

Haruka Sawamura:

Haruka Sawamura is a main character in the Yakuza series. She is the adoptive daughter of Kazuma Kiryu, whom she first meets and becomes close to during the events of Yakuza/Yakuza Kiwami when Kiryu helps her to locate her missing mother when she is 9. She would continue to feature subsequently in Yakuza 2/Yakuza Kiwami 2, Yakuza 3 and Yakuza 4. In Yakuza 5, she is now an idol, and appears as one of the five playable protagonists. She is a central character in Yakuza 6, wherein it is revealed that she has a young son named Haruto Sawamura.
For most of the series during and after Yakuza 3, Haruka resides in Okinawa at the Morning Glory Orphanage along with eight other children Kiryu has taken in. As the oldest one living there besides Kiryu, she acts as the older sibling to the rest of the kids.

Part 4: The Story

I Won’t say a lot here to spoil stuff.

Yakuza 5 takes place Two years after Yakuza 4, The story spans the Five Protagonists, and is a very good one with some interesting plot twists and good emotional moments, if you like good stories, I think you’re going to like this one.

Part 5: Should I start with this game if I never played a Yakuza game?

Absolutely not.

I Would Recommend to play at least Yakuza Kiwami to Yakuza 3.

Yakuza 4 is also recommended but is not essential in my opinion.
Yakuza 0 is recommended if you want to understand certain aspects of the Plot even better, Yakuza 0 is the First game in chronological order, Yakuza 0 takes place in 1988, Kiwami in 2005, Kiwami 2 in 2006, Yakuza 3 in 2009, Yakuza 4 in 2010, and Yakuza 5 in 2012

If you want so start playing the Yakuza franchise, I heavily recommend to start with Yakuza 0 OR Yakuza Kiwami.

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