Review: Yakuza 4 (PS3)

Rating: M (for Mature)
Genre: Action-Adventure
Developer: CS1 Team
Publisher: Sega
Release Date: March15, 2011

BUY

Japan may have slipped from the news cycle, but it is ever present in my mind. The inner self dialog, an allusive perforation narrated by Anthony Bourdain, sentimentalizing about Hokkaido or Osaka. Moments, fragments, evoke emotions that weren’t there before. A photograph of a Japanese classic beauty, wearing a blanket, standing amid a flattened ruin. An almost empty bottle of sake with a label that says “Forgotten Japanese Spirit”. There is indeed a spiritual presence from Japan that reaches out to us so strongly, so tangibly, that we will digest any scrap of its culture that we can obtain. If you have felt this, then you will adore, even love, this classic game. It is a flashpoint, a moment reflected. The Before Time, if you will.

Yakuza 4 is PlayStation 3 exclusive. For once it is the Sony side that got something before the 360. Although it may have been a superior machine to begin with, in light of all of Sony’s recent problems, it is not without a dose of nostalgia that I got into this review. We may be witnessing the PS3′s unintended swan song as I write this.  Like Zaza Gabor’s baby, the publishing is also born from the aging and perhaps soon to be irrelevant Sega. It gives me no pleasure to predict any demise. But the signs are there to be read.

Yakuza 4 can be said to be everything it should be as a fourth offering in the franchise. All the quirks that you have come to embrace or despise about the series are here. As well as the flaws. I don’t find the intermittent blank black screens, while the PS3 loads scenes from this game particularly endearing. It may not be reasonable to expect young gamers to have patience with the not -so-much improved game engine.

For the value, you are getting lots more acreage and many new areas this time. Though again you can’t be in a rush to get anywhere. This game invites you to try the twenty-five year old scotch, go fishing, and buy jewelry for your hostesses. The designers want you to indulge. Following the big earthquake, Japan may experience a phase like the 1930′s American Depression, the gold chain wearing, clubbing and fast lifestyle of the Yakuza stereo-type might become a character of the past.

This is not Grand Theft Auto. You can’t jack cars, murder pedestrians, or beat up the call girls. Everything in Yakuza 4 has been crafted to reflect a specific Japanese Yakuza movie stereotype. A similar game was Mafia 2, and even though they are both about crime families the similarities end where the cultural aspects begin. If you haven’t played one of these before, don’t go into Yakuza 4 with any expectations, and you won’t be disappointed.

You can’t steal a motorcycle that is right in front of you in Yakuza 4. However, you can pick up that motorcycle, or a sign, or a tree, or anything else that happens to be around, and clock your opponents in the head with it. Yakuza 4 has the same aspects of a fighting game as the other versions did, but with improvements. It is still awkward and a chore to get the characters to turn around and face the enemies they are fighting. There is auto-targeting, but the characters still don’t seem to recognize the different parts of an enemy. It is an inelegant bit of programming to find in what appears to be primarily a martial arts fighter game. A better combat fight engine would have been handy in this game.

The four main characters are all equipped with a wide range of fighting skills; each character has his own style of fighting and special moves. There are many special moves and combos to perfect. As the guys fight, their Heat level increases and as it does, the character’s ability to make more and more deadly hits grows. Some of them are very funny and humiliating for the defeated.

The game does tend to stop your progress at inopportune moments, another familiar quirk from past versions. There is no rushing through this game. You need to slow down and take time to smell the expensive perfumes in the boutique. Gangs of thugs, rival yakuza, and random thieves will come up and challenge your character. Then you give them a sound beating with fists, feet and whatever is handy. The battles do yield some drops. You’ll get drinks and occasionally weapons from these guys. Though the bonuses from fighting don’t exactly make it very rewarding.

This isn’t really a shooter either. It is more of a … third person sightseeing tour/game. Did you ever want to wander around in downtown kabukicho, the infamous red light district north of Tokyo? This birthplace of host and hostess culture, age-jo and Shinjuku street fashion holds a fascination like New York or Hollywood. The fast paced life style, the complex underworld and the combination of high end pleasures gives the game a thrilling, constant anxiety.

Set in the backdrop of the long narrative of the extended Tojo family clan, this time Yakuza 4 leaves off the annoying babysitting missions. Instead you will play as four of the male members of the family. But women are not left out entirely either. Femme fatal, the beautiful and elusive Lili, whose name Yuri, can be translated as both “pure” or “lesbian” leads the males in the game on, and spearheads the plot.

Still an exciting twist would have been to have at least one female “nee-san” or ‘older sister’ in the game. If you read GTO Fourteen Days, you might remember the pivotal scene when the twins are arguing and the lady of the house comes out, impeccably garbed in traditional dress, with few words and an arresting look, she appears more delicately deadly than any of the men with rifles. Or I can just imagine one of the heroines from Soul Calibur 4 such as the dignified, umbrella carrying Satsuka, or the warrior woman Taki in that role. These suggestions would have brought a whole new excitement to the game. When playing Saints Row 2 it was outstanding being able to create a female gang leader, with full character customization, that should be included in every single game to make it fair and open to all players. So much for playable female avatars in a game designed for the male Japanese market. The point, and it is a compliment, is that this game is novel-like enough for women to enjoy it too.

Taking place in the fictional Kamuro City, three new areas were added. It isn’t as huge as Dirt 2, or some of the other open world games. There are several places where you can run up against invisible walls. The single player experience can be as short as a mere twenty hours. If you play side missions, and the mini games, you can spend tons more time in the game. The red light district which was slashed from Yakuza 3 is present this time. You can also access the roofs. Though again something weird happens with that. Instead of being able to make the characters freely walk down stairs, there are edit points. It will go off to a blank load screen, and bring your character back at the bottom of the stairs. Sometimes things which should be simple, such as basic navigation have been made either far more complicated than they need to be, or simply don’t function.

The back streets of Kamurocho known as Rojiura were included this time. And the intriguing underground or “Kamuchika” provides more opportunities for fights of course. To entice your curiosity the seedy underbelly offers players sewers, parking lots and shopping arcades to delve into.

One of the biggest differences from the previous games, is that this time, you play as four different protagonists. The original main character Kazuma Kiryu, the unwilling kumicho and unlikely hero is there, but not until the end. The others are Masayoshi Tanimura the tarnished cop, Shun Akiyama the loan shark philanthropist, and Taiga Saejima the ex-con. That may seem interesting, but keep in mind that every time you get a new character you have to start over. You loose the inventory he had, and all the skills. It isn’t like they are successively stronger either. That seems like a missed opportunity.

Rather than dubbing the dialog into English, the voice acting is all in Japanese. There are two schools of thought on this. Some gamers enjoy a great english voice acting experience, like in Mass Effect 2. Others who watch lots of anime in Japanese, will find this decision to be preferable. The immersiveness of the game is further preserved with the use of captions. Oh yes, there are lots of them.

At that fork in the road you will either find yourself diving in past the innumerable fights to discover just what the heck is going on, or you won’t care.

The lighting effects are almost blinding on a large hi def screen. There is lots and lots of neon. There are signs on buildings which seem to be piled one on top of the other. Each glaring and clashing vividly against the other. Flashy strobe lights, and disco balls inside and out of the clubs throb with virtual electricity.

The ambient noises in the game are very realistic. Music and announcements blare from the shops. You can hear construction going on, guys are trying to solicit girls to work as hostesses, the
ball bearings fall down inside the machines of the pachinko parlors adding to the jangle of the cacophony of noise. What you don’t hear are the incessant sirens that are the ever present back-up to a Liberty City scene.

Lest we forget and tend to over romanticize, these four Yakuza characters are dangerous fighters, who would as soon knock a guy’s head off as talk to him. They are brutal and the fighting is violent. It is over the top in a way that does make it humorous. There is something about the impenetrable fortress of these men that will make you want to get to their core and understand their motivations, thanks to the convoluted story. They aren’t particularly sensitive guys, but some of the conversations they have may surprise you. They are not unthinking one-dimensional characters.

In typical Japanese fashion, the plot isn’t handed to you easily from beginning to end. Laden with murders, betrayals and red herrings, you’ll be drawn into its world. The consciousness and code of honor among thieves that attracts Americans to underdogs, and dark heroes is at play here. It is deeper than Heavy Rain, more realistic than Mafia 2 and on par with the sarcastic sense of humor you had with GTA 4′s Niko Bellic story arc.

In a complicated fashion some families see themselves as the decendants of samurai. The unemployed soldier class declined after their glory era. The word Yakuza today originates from gambler or ‘bakuto’. The three smaller words ya-ku-za, or 8-9-3, is a sardonic metaphor referring to a losing hand in Oicho-Kabu, a form of Japanese blackjack.

In the game, gambling offers numerous distractions. There are several mini-games such as the addictive pachinko, the relaxing yet predictable fishing, bowling, pool, batting cages, Blackjack, darts, (real) mah jong, shoji, and even ping pong. Other luxuries are the onsen baths, massage parlor, hostess club, golf and karaoke.

Does Yakuza 4 objectify women? It most certainly does, unapologetically. There is no pretense used. The women in the game are either non-sexual hostesses, the modern day Geishas that pour drinks and provide enchanting conversation for men, massage parlors and sex workers are also there for the entertainment of men. The hostess girl dress-up mini-game permits your character to buy women’s clothing and accessories. Your male character that is. He can purchase items and have the hostess try them on while he watches her. You win by creating the number one earning hostess for your club.  The ping pong game has frequent gratuitous camera zoom ins on the women’s chests. Then there’s the weirdo wearing panties on his head hanging off a fire escape by a bra. That believe it or not is another mini-game. A panty otaku.

Fishing controls are simple and fun. Your character will have to pay for bait though. You will catch equal amounts of non fish items. An empty brief case, or the poorly translated “cylindrical trash”, think they meant “tin can”? The golf isn’t as easy to control as the Tiger Woods games of course but it’s a full golf course with your choices for clubs to use.

Yakuza 4 leaves plenty of room for improvement. In all honesty it needed a full overhaul to bring it up to date with its peers. The combat engine, navigation, camera, and level design all could have been reworked. At any given point you can compare it to the leaders in its genre and finding it lacking. The one thing that this game does right it to be itself. Sega could have invested some resources in making this a better built game and didn’t. Perhaps too much emphasis was made in the mini-games that should have gone into the perfection of other aspects of the game. In the end the game was left old school like the Yakuza themselves. That in itself is hardcore enough for most gamers who buy brawler video games, and watch martial arts movies with sub titles.

Like the WWII era kimono that you find at the vintage clothing store that has a ripped lining, when you look down and see, “Is that real gold thread? OMG!” You clutch it possessively to your chest and take it to the check out line, Yakuza 4 is a Buy.