First Impression

[armycat23]

I've only just begun, but unless the game becomes broken later on or the story totally flubs(like IW) later on.........I don't see why this game is almost always near the bottom of the rankings of people's preference of RGG games, typically only reliably beating Yakuza 3.

I'm also already having more fun with the battle system then I did with Yakuza Kiwami 2.



I was unsure of how I would like multiple protags, but I seriously like Akiyama and wouldn't mind him getting his own solo game at some point.

[Lar Dass]

Its because the plot makes no sense halfway throughout, it makes sense in the ending but throughout theres so many confusing elements on how things connect

[armycat23]

Originally posted by Lar Dass:

Its because the plot makes no sense halfway throughout, it makes sense in the ending but throughout theres so many confusing elements on how things connect

I gotcha, I appreciate the heads up in what to expect without giving spoilers.

[Jinx]

Near the bottom, what? No, this is the best one, hands down. Don't let anyone try to convince you otherwise.

[armycat23]

Originally posted by Jinx:

Near the bottom, what? No, this is the best one, hands down. Don't let anyone try to convince you otherwise.

Out of curiousity, I just googled "ranked yakuza games" just to see how much they were esteemed. I saw a reddit post with lots of user ranking and a few other website posts. Overwhelmingly, it seemed 3 and 4 were ranked at the lowest of people's rankings.

You're right I shouldn't let anyone try to convince me. I was willing to give it a fair shot, and I'm happy that I did.

[highstrunghero]

My gripes with Yakuza 4 have less to do with the nonsensical plot, as let's be honest most of the Yakuza games have nonsensical plots, its more to do with the actual game play.

The Akiyami stuff is great, but then you move on to Saejima who has to have some of the series worst gameplay sequences, his starting area in particular is pure torture.

Kamurcho is also a pain to navigate, the rooftop and underground sections aren't fun for more than 5 minutes, and Little Asia is absolute worst. Also do you like chase sequences? Because Yakuza 4 sure does!

4 is like a roller coaster, there's some great ups, and some terrible downs.

[Lar Dass]

Originally posted by armycat23:

Originally posted by Jinx:

Near the bottom, what? No, this is the best one, hands down. Don't let anyone try to convince you otherwise.

Out of curiousity, I just googled "ranked yakuza games" just to see how much they were esteemed. I saw a reddit post with lots of user ranking and a few other website posts. Overwhelmingly, it seemed 3 and 4 were ranked at the lowest of people's rankings.

You're right I shouldn't let anyone try to convince me. I was willing to give it a fair shot, and I'm happy that I did.

see thats the funny thing because yakuza 3 is one of my favourites, story was great, gameplay was great (dont button mash) and the content was good considering it was the first main yakuza on ps3

[armycat23]

Originally posted by Lar Dass:

Originally posted by armycat23:

Out of curiousity, I just googled "ranked yakuza games" just to see how much they were esteemed. I saw a reddit post with lots of user ranking and a few other website posts. Overwhelmingly, it seemed 3 and 4 were ranked at the lowest of people's rankings.

You're right I shouldn't let anyone try to convince me. I was willing to give it a fair shot, and I'm happy that I did.

see thats the funny thing because yakuza 3 is one of my favourites, story was great, gameplay was great (dont button mash) and the content was good considering it was the first main yakuza on ps3

I think that's another downfall of my falling for public opinion rather than relying on my own, because of how 3 was trashed so harshly, even worse than 4, I ended up skipping 3 and just watching some scenes.

Hindsight is 20/20, and I could have given 3 a chance.


I also just finished 4, and I did like it. It's not without it's faults, but there was much more positive than negative.

[armycat23]

Originally posted by crispiechicken:

My gripes with Yakuza 4 have less to do with the nonsensical plot, as let's be honest most of the Yakuza games have nonsensical plots, its more to do with the actual game play.

The Akiyami stuff is great, but then you move on to Saejima who has to have some of the series worst gameplay sequences, his starting area in particular is pure torture.

Kamurcho is also a pain to navigate, the rooftop and underground sections aren't fun for more than 5 minutes, and Little Asia is absolute worst. Also do you like chase sequences? Because Yakuza 4 sure does!

4 is like a roller coaster, there's some great ups, and some terrible downs.

I loved the Akiyama stuff and I felt the Tanimura stuff was interesting as well. Saejima.....well, that was easily the least enjoyable. I thought the starting point, in prison, COULD have possibly been cool if they made it interesting.........and maybe showed more of a reason for Saejima and hamazaka to trust each other.......but the entire Saejima portion felt kind of hollow. Sure it was important to the story, but it just wasn't that interesting.

Plus, fighting and roaming with Saejima would be like driving a bus through dirt bike obstacle course......slow, tedious, and not fun.

I will say that I think Yakuza 4 portrayed mourning for a deceased person.....*spoiler Saejima's sister* much better conveyed than most other yakuza games. I appreciated that because it felt like the character really mattered. I remember Nishiki, Reina, etc dying and it felt like there was no mourning....

The story? I didn't mind how "gotcha" it tried to be, even when it was questionable.. However, some things didn't make a lot of sense, even in the way of common sense.

For example- Was it really needful for the main characters to stack all the money on the top of the millineum tower? The only person that would likely even have a preview to see if the money was there in advance would be the police chief. If it was done for optics? Why not just leave the money in the cases? Was it really needful to blow the money away?

Also, Akiyama kept 100 billion in a safe and not have any kind of security measures other than hide it behind a book? All it would take to open it was push a button and turn the handle? For a guy who is supposedly used to betrayal....that seems very short-sighted of him.

Also, this prison just has random things around that a prisoners could use for weapons, if used for that purpose? I get it wasn't an official prison, but it still doesn't make much sense.

That's just a few examples.

Ultimately, I can brush that off, because all the yakuza games can be nit-picked in certain ways,...but what I really didn't like that there wasn't a real main villain. There were several people you fight at the end...or confront....but they all felt "mid-boss" level. A good main villain can be a huge motivation and reason that makes a game good.

Ultimately, I enjoyed my time with it, mainly due to Akiyama, but I certainly could understand why some people wouldn't have it on the top half of the games RGG has made.

I would give it a 7.8 out of 10.

[fourskulls]

I just restarted playing the game this weekend after letting it sit for 2 years. I don't know I'm just not gelling with the gameplay. I'm only on Chapter 2 I guess (still Akiyama), trying to do sidestories, but it feels so tedious. I've played 0,1,2,6,7, Gaiden, 8. I'm thinking about skipping this one to 5 or start Judgement 2.