Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (PlayStation 4) Review

Having served three years in prison to atone for his sins and start afresh as a new man and guardian of the kids at his orphanage, Kazuma Kiryu learns the shocking news that his effective daughter has been involved in a hit and run incident and now lies in a coma. With Haruka's ties to the yakuza drawing unwanted attention to the orphanage, she ran away from home to protect her family, only to get caught up in circumstances even more dangerous.

The other major piece of the puzzle is that Haruka was holding something of great importance when she was struck down: a baby. Kiryu's search for answers takes him to Onomichi, Hiroshima, where Haruka is believed to have stayed at some point in the last few years. In this sleepy port town and the opposing bustling back alleys of Kamurocho, Tokyo, is the truth Kiryu seeks…as well as far more than he could have bargained for.

Running on the all-new Dragon Engine, Yakuza 6 looks fantastic...for the most part. In particular, the nighttime sequences in Tokyo do the city justice, with glorious neon colours reflecting in puddles to bring the place to life, as citizens go about their business for work and pleasure. It is clear the development team required longer to get to grips with the engine, though, as there is some nasty screen tearing going on mostly when inside buildings that really is a sight for sore eyes, along with plenty of flickering and a lower frame rate than desired.

A major positive, however, is that exploration is seamless, as Kiryu can enter stores, restaurants and buildings around town immediately, with no loading screens in view. By extent, battles also transition straight away, making gameplay a much quicker and smoother experience than in previous games.

It is noticeable that particular areas that could be explored before are not accessible in Kamurocho in Yakuza 6. Certain alleys are blocked off, and when you also factor in the single battle style at Kiryu's disposal when compared to the multiple styles he had in Yakuza 0, it only points to a case of the developers having to direct focus to other parts of the game due to the new engine and time restraints. It makes for some disappointment, but at the same time, these faults are made up for in other areas.

Combat is still satisfying, and despite the constant reminders that Kiryu is now an "old man" (being labelled old at 48 seems way too harsh, especially when some of the opponents that spout this look older than Kiryu!), it's great to see him kicking major ass as if he was still 20 years old. Thankfully, initial fears of going a Metal Gear Solid 4 Old Snake route are quickly eliminated.

The battle system is stripped down to a much more simple format, with Heat actions paving the way to some QTE sequences where you feel every punch and kick. You still get a real sense for Kiryu's absolutely brutal fighting skill, but due to the slight lack in variety compared to past games, there is an edge of repetitiveness.

The range of objects to fight with is less than before, and no weapons can be equipped, save for two pieces of gear that enhance defensive stats. There are a couple of awesome QTE sections in early parts of the game that hinted at making battles much more appealing on an interactive and visual level further down the road, but the game doesn't quite take it as far as it could have gone.

As Kiryu's final appearance, there are some mixed emotions as the story progresses. It is interesting to see that instead of going the path of a sort of love letter to everything that has come before, whereby one might expect to see a number of old faces playing key roles, such as Daigo Dojima, Goro Majima and Taega Saejima, there is little time for any of these, and the focus is very much on Kiryu and a whole host of new characters. Some familiar guys do play their part, but this is quite the self-contained plot that puts the limelight on Kiryu's Onomichi acquaintances.

Although starting a little slow, the narrative moves forward at a steady pace, going to great lengths to ensure plot points and people of interest are introduced and explained incrementally and carefully. It can grow a little confusing if the attention slips away on occasion, as Kiryu finds himself getting wrapped up in deep yakuza issues that span multiple clans and families from not just Japan, but other parts of Asia. With a number of well-written characters and terrific performances, even featuring such famous actors as Beat Takeshi, the story is fascinating and gripping in various moments. There are some real thrills as revelations are discovered and Kiryu drives head first into yakuza hell.

With so many characters and focus shifting from one enemy to the next, though, it can feel like a bit of impact is lost as a major antagonist takes time to appear, even near the end of the story. Yakuza 6 seems to play out like a crime thriller more than any other game before it, which is no bad thing, really, with the core theme of family driving the narrative along from beginning to end. In itself, it's a rather beautiful tale that is constantly moving to showcase how deep the ties go between government and yakuza. Without some of the more impacting moments that have come to be expected in other Yakuza entries, though, this can feel slightly wanting in parts of the story.

Typical of any Yakuza game, however, there are countless minigames and sub stories to divert from the serious nature of the main plot. This is where the developers express the humorous and just plain weird side of Yakuza, and Yakuza 6 does not disappoint. While the odd minigame from past entries may be found to be missing this time around, there is still more than enough to entertain yourself with between the plentiful downtime periods or after finishing the main story.

From playing classic SEGA arcade games like Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown and Out Run, to feeding and befriending stray cats to add to the local cat café, to wooing the ladies at the cabaret club and singing karaoke or playing darts with them, to bulking up in the local gym, to building a fighting clan to take on other gangs in a light real-time strategy game, to spearfishing underwater and taking down giant monsters of the deep, to constructing an entire baseball squad to become the best team in Onomichi…Yakuza 6 has it all.

While a frustrating minigame involving keeping the baby from crying slows the story down to a crawl at one point, it is thankfully just a limited time distraction. When it comes to achieving full completion, there are less problematic and time-consuming things to worry about compared to previous entries, which should please those looking to attain all there is to do.