Yakuza 5 Review (PS3)
Introduction
This is the fifth game of the main Yakuza series. Like Yakuza 4, this game boasts multiple playable characters with different fighting styles and their own stories. The English version of this game is only available digitally for sale in US PS Store and EU PS Store.
Story
This game takes place after the events of Yakuza 4. Like Yakuza 4, there are multiple story modes focusing on multiple playable characters. Once you have completed all of the chapters focusing on each playable character, the final chapter will open up, uniting the playable characters into the main story until the end of the game.
Kiryu Kazuma's story takes place in Nagasugai, Fukuoka, where he is working as a taxi driver. As he is doing his daily job, he is reunited with Dojima Daigo, the current chairman of the Tojo Clan. After the chairman's disappearance, he is entangled into Yakuza affairs, and has to find out what happened to him.
Saejima Taiga's story takes place in Tsukimono, Sapporo, where he is currently serving his sentence. Once he found out that his blood brother is dead, he is determined to find out how did he die from one of the top Yakuza family in that city.
Sawamura Haruka and Akiyama Shun's stories take place in Sotenbori, Osaka. Haruka is currently trying to make her idol debut, but she has to face difficulties in training as an idol, such as singing and dancing. Akiyama Shun is currently trying to open a new branch of his business in that city, but unfortunately he has to find out the case of missing money, as well as working together with Haruka to find it out.
Shinada Tatsuo's story takes place in Kineichi, Nagoya, where he s currently working as an adult entertainment writer after being banned from baseball. One day, he met someone who hires him to find out the true reason as to why he was banned from baseball, which is linked to the Yakuza world.
The final chapter takes place in Kamurocho, Tokyo, where all of the main characters arrive to find out the true mastermind of the plot that endangers multiple Yakuza clans, but the civilians lives as well.
The story is pretty good. Interesting overall plot, many likable characters, some good plot twists, and good individual stories for each playable character. Kiryu Kazuma, Saejima Taiga, Sawamura Haruka, Akiyama Shun, and Tatsuo Shinada are really good characters. Other supporting characters such as Baba, Takasugi are good too. Tatsuo Shinada has the best individual storyline, and he also has really likable personality as one of the new characters introduced in this game.
The story is not without faults. One of it is the weak final villain reveal. There are not much foreshadowing regarding the final villain's reveal, and it doesn't work really well in the story. The second is the ending. I do not particularly like the ending, as it doesn't give proper story closures to all of the main characters in the game. The game's story also has rushed pacing, with some plot points remain unexplained even after finishing the game.
Other than those issues, I slightly prefer this game's story over Yakuza 4's story, but not above the first three game's stories.
Gameplay
This game plays like previous Yakuza games, with some new enhancements in the gameplay due to the new game engine.
The progression is simple, as you will play five different parts (chapters), with the first four parts focus on each playable character, and the final part acts as the finale of the game. Each story Part has four sub-chapters, and each Part focuses on different playable character's story. To proceed with the game's story, you must complete the story objectives available, which can be marked on your minimap. Some objectives may require you to talk to someone, complete a minigame, or fight against enemies.
Exploration remains the same as previous games, where you can explore a city and complete side activities such as Side Stories, Sub Stories, and minigames. You may also fast-travel within the city or to other cities by using a taxi service. Most of the time, you will be running around to proceed with your story objective. You may also encounter regular enemies in the game, which can be triggered if they catch up to you. They can be skipped if you walk past by them without alerting them.
Leveling remains the same as previous games, where you gain a Level and Soul Points by gaining enough experience points. Experience points can be obtained by fighting regular enemies on the street and story, eating food, or completing Sub Stories and Side Stories. You may also spend your Soul Points to level different stats, which may grant you bonuses such as increase of health, increase of Heat, or new technique. You may also equip your characters with different piece of equipment such as weapons for offence, or defencive items for better survival. Items can also be bought by buying from stores available in the game.
The combat system remains largely the same, except now each character has their own special technique that can be used to defeat enemies faster. For example, Kiryu has the Dragon Spirit ability, which allows him to be invulnerable against many attacks and gains attack power boost while his Heat gauge is drained. Each character has different fighting style and different special techniques, so make good use of their Soul Points and spend wisely on stats.
In regular combat, each fighting character can use punch and kick attacks to damage enemies, grab and throw them, or use special techniques called Heat Actions to deal heavy damage against enemies. You may also pick up objects and weapons to beat up your enemies. Each enemy has different health bar and their own attack style. Bosses will be more tougher due to higher health bars and special attacks, so they will prove a challenge to you at various points in the game.
One new type of battle in this game is dance battles, where is a music rhythm battle where you square off against other dancers. You have to press certain buttons at the correct timing and get the highest score to defeat the dancing opponent.
I do not have many issues with the gameplays system. Smoother battle system compared to previous Yakuza games, more unique playable fighting characters in this game, and good Side Stories design. Haruka's sections are pretty good too, and I enjoy playing dance battles against other dancers compared to the standard rhytsm song game in the story.
However, I do not particularly like the enemy variety in this game, as there are not enough variety of them compared to previous Yakuza games, such as heavy enemies or mercenary enemies. Shinada also has the weakest fighting ability in this game, as he does not have enough bare-handed moves that allows him to defeat enemies faster. Plus, his special ability My Meteor Tackle is not really good when it comes to fighting tougher enemies.
Regardless, the gameplay is great, but not without issues. A good improvement compared to previous Yakuza games.
Graphics
This game has really great graphics. Excellent character models and environment designs, where each city is lively. Some of the locations shown in this game are also based on real-life locations as well, for authenticity sake. The cutscenes are top-notch as well, with great facial animations.
However, this game does suffer framerate issues, when exploring certain areas as well as fighting large amount of enemies at the same time. Fortunately, this game has no bugs and glitches.
Sound
This game has good voice acting by the Japanese voice actors. Believable and emotional voice acting performances by all voice actors in this game. Morikawa Toshiyuki's voice acting as Shinada Tatsuo stand outs a lot for me as the voice actor rarely voices that kind of character, which is great.
The soundtrack is pretty good too, with some good boss themes, stage themes, and vocal songs. I do prefer previous game's boss themes compared to this game's boss themes, however.
Replay Value
This game has high replay value. You can play the game again in harder difficulty modes by carrying over your clear save file, play minigames, complete all substories, complete all Side Missions for each character, and get 100% completion in the game. There is a lot of content that you can do in this game, so if you like the game, you should try out the side-activities available in the game.
Conclusion
This game is great. Interesting storyline, many likable characters, good gameplay system, improved battle system, lots of content, good graphics, and high replay value are the hughlights of this game. I highly recommend this game to Yakuza fans. It should be noted that this
Score
Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Story: 8/10
Final Score: 8.3/10 or 33/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Interesting storyline.
- Many likable characters.
- Good individual chapters for each playable character.
- Smoother battle system with improved combat animations.
- Lots of side activities to be done.
- Fun Haruka sections.
- High replay value.
- Impressive graphics, such as cutscenes, character models, and environments.
- Good voice acting.
Cons
- Weak final villain reveal.
- Abrupt ending.
- Rushed story pacing at the Finale chapter.
- Not many regular enemy variety.
- Shinada has less useful fighting moves compared to other three fighting characters.
- Framerate issues.
- Inability to create clear save file through Premium Adventure mode.
**Screenshots are from official PlayStation game page and Truetrophies site.
This is the fifth game of the main Yakuza series. Like Yakuza 4, this game boasts multiple playable characters with different fighting styles and their own stories. The English version of this game is only available digitally for sale in US PS Store and EU PS Store.
Story
Play as five different characters in this game, and enjoy their stories.
This game takes place after the events of Yakuza 4. Like Yakuza 4, there are multiple story modes focusing on multiple playable characters. Once you have completed all of the chapters focusing on each playable character, the final chapter will open up, uniting the playable characters into the main story until the end of the game.
Kiryu Kazuma's story takes place in Nagasugai, Fukuoka, where he is working as a taxi driver. As he is doing his daily job, he is reunited with Dojima Daigo, the current chairman of the Tojo Clan. After the chairman's disappearance, he is entangled into Yakuza affairs, and has to find out what happened to him.
Saejima Taiga's story takes place in Tsukimono, Sapporo, where he is currently serving his sentence. Once he found out that his blood brother is dead, he is determined to find out how did he die from one of the top Yakuza family in that city.
Sawamura Haruka and Akiyama Shun's stories take place in Sotenbori, Osaka. Haruka is currently trying to make her idol debut, but she has to face difficulties in training as an idol, such as singing and dancing. Akiyama Shun is currently trying to open a new branch of his business in that city, but unfortunately he has to find out the case of missing money, as well as working together with Haruka to find it out.
Shinada Tatsuo's story takes place in Kineichi, Nagoya, where he s currently working as an adult entertainment writer after being banned from baseball. One day, he met someone who hires him to find out the true reason as to why he was banned from baseball, which is linked to the Yakuza world.
The final chapter takes place in Kamurocho, Tokyo, where all of the main characters arrive to find out the true mastermind of the plot that endangers multiple Yakuza clans, but the civilians lives as well.
The story is pretty good. Interesting overall plot, many likable characters, some good plot twists, and good individual stories for each playable character. Kiryu Kazuma, Saejima Taiga, Sawamura Haruka, Akiyama Shun, and Tatsuo Shinada are really good characters. Other supporting characters such as Baba, Takasugi are good too. Tatsuo Shinada has the best individual storyline, and he also has really likable personality as one of the new characters introduced in this game.
The story is not without faults. One of it is the weak final villain reveal. There are not much foreshadowing regarding the final villain's reveal, and it doesn't work really well in the story. The second is the ending. I do not particularly like the ending, as it doesn't give proper story closures to all of the main characters in the game. The game's story also has rushed pacing, with some plot points remain unexplained even after finishing the game.
Other than those issues, I slightly prefer this game's story over Yakuza 4's story, but not above the first three game's stories.
Gameplay
Explore different cities in Japan.
This game plays like previous Yakuza games, with some new enhancements in the gameplay due to the new game engine.
The progression is simple, as you will play five different parts (chapters), with the first four parts focus on each playable character, and the final part acts as the finale of the game. Each story Part has four sub-chapters, and each Part focuses on different playable character's story. To proceed with the game's story, you must complete the story objectives available, which can be marked on your minimap. Some objectives may require you to talk to someone, complete a minigame, or fight against enemies.
Exploration remains the same as previous games, where you can explore a city and complete side activities such as Side Stories, Sub Stories, and minigames. You may also fast-travel within the city or to other cities by using a taxi service. Most of the time, you will be running around to proceed with your story objective. You may also encounter regular enemies in the game, which can be triggered if they catch up to you. They can be skipped if you walk past by them without alerting them.
Leveling remains the same as previous games, where you gain a Level and Soul Points by gaining enough experience points. Experience points can be obtained by fighting regular enemies on the street and story, eating food, or completing Sub Stories and Side Stories. You may also spend your Soul Points to level different stats, which may grant you bonuses such as increase of health, increase of Heat, or new technique. You may also equip your characters with different piece of equipment such as weapons for offence, or defencive items for better survival. Items can also be bought by buying from stores available in the game.
Each character has their own special ability.
In regular combat, each fighting character can use punch and kick attacks to damage enemies, grab and throw them, or use special techniques called Heat Actions to deal heavy damage against enemies. You may also pick up objects and weapons to beat up your enemies. Each enemy has different health bar and their own attack style. Bosses will be more tougher due to higher health bars and special attacks, so they will prove a challenge to you at various points in the game.
Dance battle against other dancers.
I do not have many issues with the gameplays system. Smoother battle system compared to previous Yakuza games, more unique playable fighting characters in this game, and good Side Stories design. Haruka's sections are pretty good too, and I enjoy playing dance battles against other dancers compared to the standard rhytsm song game in the story.
However, I do not particularly like the enemy variety in this game, as there are not enough variety of them compared to previous Yakuza games, such as heavy enemies or mercenary enemies. Shinada also has the weakest fighting ability in this game, as he does not have enough bare-handed moves that allows him to defeat enemies faster. Plus, his special ability My Meteor Tackle is not really good when it comes to fighting tougher enemies.
Regardless, the gameplay is great, but not without issues. A good improvement compared to previous Yakuza games.
Graphics
Great graphics.
However, this game does suffer framerate issues, when exploring certain areas as well as fighting large amount of enemies at the same time. Fortunately, this game has no bugs and glitches.
Sound
Good voice acting and soundtrack.
The soundtrack is pretty good too, with some good boss themes, stage themes, and vocal songs. I do prefer previous game's boss themes compared to this game's boss themes, however.
Replay Value
High replay value.
Conclusion
Better than Yakuza 4, at the very least.
Score
Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Story: 8/10
Final Score: 8.3/10 or 33/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Interesting storyline.
- Many likable characters.
- Good individual chapters for each playable character.
- Smoother battle system with improved combat animations.
- Lots of side activities to be done.
- Fun Haruka sections.
- High replay value.
- Impressive graphics, such as cutscenes, character models, and environments.
- Good voice acting.
Cons
- Weak final villain reveal.
- Abrupt ending.
- Rushed story pacing at the Finale chapter.
- Not many regular enemy variety.
- Shinada has less useful fighting moves compared to other three fighting characters.
- Framerate issues.
- Inability to create clear save file through Premium Adventure mode.
**Screenshots are from official PlayStation game page and Truetrophies site.
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