English
Gamereactor
previews
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

Hands-on with Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

We played the first few hours of the latest chapter in Sega's Japanese gangster tale.

Subscribe to our newsletter here!

* Required field
HQ
HQ

The Yakuza series has been very successful for Sega in Japan over the years, amassing a strong following across various PlayStation platforms from PS2 onwards. However, for one reason or another, it's never really caught on in Western markets. There's a core group of followers, but whether it's been due to belated releases here or that it's simply been too Japanese for Western tastes, it just seems as if the series has never gotten the attention it deserves. Perhaps the time has come with Yakuza 6: The Song of Life? It is the first game to make the full transition to the current generation of consoles (previous Yakuza titles were released on both PS3 and PS4), and we've only been made to wait just over a year for it (and not three years like with Yakuza 5).

And on that note it should be mentioned that Yakuza 6: The Song of Life does a great job of settling in new players. The first hour or so is mainly spent looking back at the events leading up to the game, mainly focusing on main franchise protagonist Kazuma Kiryu and his relationship to his ward, his chosen family, Haruka.

Kazuma Kiryu is all about honour, and so he accepts a four-year prison sentence to somehow buy his way out of the life and to ensure that his orphanage on Okinawa isn't dragged down with him. Haruka, a Japanese pop idol, announces her retirement on stage while stating her support for the former Yakuza-man. Of course, things didn't turn out as he wanted. As Haruka returned to the orphanage on Okinawa the press caught wind of the Yakuza angle and she opted to leave. Fast forward three years as Kiryu leaves prison for Okinawa and he's left with trying to locate Haruka. It takes him back to Kamurocho, where it turns out Haruka has been in an accident and she's in a coma. To complicate things further she's had a baby. Who the father is and why hasn't she told anyone about this remains a mystery.

This is an ad:
Yakuza 6: The Song of LifeYakuza 6: The Song of Life

If this sounds like something out of a daytime soap, you're not too far off. Yakuza is a weird yet tasty cocktail of a Japanese take on GTA mixed with goofy characters and lots of mini-games and activities. It's steeped in Japanese culture and while it does give you an authentic vibe (walking around in Kamurocho is simply great), there are also elements that just don't really gel with our Western tastebuds. In particular, there was an introduction to a live chat mini-game that felt a bit on the cringy side of things, but these side activities are largely optional. Some of the mini-games are also returning, like the batting cages and the hostess club. There's also a cat café that sadly we didn't have time to visit during our play session, but apparently there's a side story revolving around its management. Yet another fun little aside was this story of Haruka's greatest fan, a little girl looking for her idol's merchandise that has been pulled from store following the reveal of her ties to the Yakuza.

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

And we haven't even mentioned our visit to Club Sega in Kamurocho where you can play both Puyo Puyo and Virtua Fighter 5 - both of which are also available for two players in the main menu, which is great added value in our opinion as they both represent some of the best games the respective genres have to offer. The heritage of Shenmue lives on in Yakuza and apparently there are more games to discover further into the adventure.

This is an ad:

Kiryu is the definition of someone who keeps getting pulled back in. He hates the gangster life and what it does to those he cares about and begrudgingly beats up thugs while maintaining his stoic calm. He curses Kamurocho under his breath, and as he's been out of the game for a while he keeps getting jabbed by old man jokes. Almost to the point where you start to feel a bit bad for him (he looks pretty fresh for a guy who's spent his life in the Yakuza and just got out of prison). All of this just somehow works to create a sense of urgency in between the more or less silly mini-games.

Yakuza 6: The Song of LifeYakuza 6: The Song of LifeYakuza 6: The Song of Life

While the first hour mainly consisted of recapping the story leading up to the actual game, whether it was via dialogue or cutscenes, later on we were set loose in Kamurocho where we where impressed by the easy-to-get-to-grips-with combat system that offers plenty of variation thanks to the option of grabbing enemies and/or nearby objects. There's a great sense of satisfaction as you use a traffic cone to smash in the face of a named thug (an interesting aside, the thugs you beat up have names) who's wearing some decidedly tacky sunglasses. And while we only had time to briefly overview the development of your abilities and skills, it would appear to offer plenty of depth.

It feels as if the Yakuza series is making a pretty big leap forward with Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, while it maintains the quirky nature that has secured its cult following. The authentic Japanese atmosphere and the rich characters that tend to offer more than what meets the eye are the big selling points here, and perhaps the time has come for a wider audience to discover the merits of Yakuza this time around.

HQ

Related texts



Loading next content