Yakuza 6: The Song of Life Review
Credits
Accustomed to the death and violence of the clan struggle, Kazuma Kiryu faces what is for him the most difficult task, to watch over life, for a new and innocent life, while ending his legendary history. With almost a year and a half behind its launch in Japan .At last Sega is updated in the West with its increasingly popular saga of criminal action and urban open world. This sixth numbered delivery subtitled The Song of Life is the most advanced in terms of graphic technology, offer of mini-games and activities, progression system or combat possibilities . But, given its continuity in formulas and the recent release of the remake Yakuza Kiwami , are all these developments enough reasons for us to talk about Yakuza 6: The Song of Life as the best delivery and an essential of the series? We are going to know about that in this analysis.
Yakuza 6 has came with the Dragon Engine graphic engine and on PlayStation 4 alone is to reformulate some technical aspects, and that these improvements are also transferred to the playable domain. This is the Yakuza that is best seen and best played, agile in framerate and in handling , and that does not require to have played the previous ones since, in the start menu with the Memories section and later in the story, it incorporates Constant explanatory and contextual flashbacks for newcomers. However, it is a chapter clearly conceived thinking of the fans , full of stellar appearances, memories, references and, in short, what we call fan service.
Content
Once again, the folklore and contemporary culture of Japan support an exquisite atmosphere with attention to detail and the Tokyo rhythm, where there is room for satire and banal subplots , with pedestrians shooting secondary missions when asking for help for questions as light as a romantic date that has gone wrong, a vagabond looking for concrete food, or a street vendor who is angry with a social network that ruins his business. Most of these missions are simple in outline : go from A to B, and return to A to warn that the job is done.
Logically, these superfluous cartoons and the interesting amount of activities and entertainment that Kiryu can access are interspersed with the central tense plot, which feels definitive for the protagonist, and where the player does not stop receiving new clues and questions that encourage continue playing and generate a pleasant uncertainty until the last episode, although on the way we wanted to remember Sega classics like Out Run or Puyo Puyo in the emblematic Club Sega and all its recreations.
As always in Yakuza, getting to the end of the main thread entails a number of hours - around 18-20 that multiply a lot if you want to complete all the challenges and activities, as well as get the Platinum Trophy . This is an open world game divided into sectors and diverse cities full of shops and activities or additional games, something that once drank Shenmue and in this The Song of Life is still with absolute weight . But it is also an action and role game, with a Kiryu who is once again the only playable character and who is in better shape than ever, as he learns more and more movement techniques thanks to his progress tree divided into categories.
Combat System
The combat in Yakuza 6 repeats the button mapping and with strong, fast blows, but it releases some commands, loads of special and choreography that really make it more satisfying, colorful and fair . The streets of each of the navigable areas are still full of thugs, members of various bands and triads, and sudden dangers or nuisances that slow the races, but Kiryu now has more objects at his disposal to grab and hit, has movements of counter, elusive, knockouts, keys, varied flips, and, most importantly, the renewed Heat mode by orbs.
Yakuza has supernatural and pissed-off state where the protagonist hits harder and faster, but now a series of own commands and devastating blows are released that, in the most demanding matches, incite to use it with astuteness and taking advantage of opportunities, which get a more tactical and deep use that is adorned with the possibility of breaking furniture and objects from the street to use the pieces as a forceful weapon.
All martial arts fights, also armed from a certain point in the game, can reinforce attributes or rewards with drinks . The vending machines on the street and the altered states that make certain meals make Kiryu stronger, more agile, more resistant or prepared to obtain more points of experience and money to get through a fight. The yen are not scarce, hunger tightens, and the tonic of the game ends up being that the character has almost always a refreshment in hand or something to eat in the inventory to enhance the continuous fights .
Characters
All the cast of main characters of the brand is immersed in this plot, perhaps the most sensitive to date given the initial knot: the demise of Haruka and the birth of his son, Haruto . With this starting point, which many would call telenovela and generates a no doubt striking image with the burly and rough Kiryu cradling tenderly the little one, Yakuza 6 poses a typical narrative scheme in the series : many cinematics, conversations, and very relative freedom to face all kinds of orders, principal and secondary, in the streets of Kamurocho and now also of Onomichi, in the Hiroshima region.
The Direct Clashes
Of course, there are also clashes against leaders of rival mafias, and certain key matches with their own rules or very limited areas to favor the direct clash. The best thing about Yakuza 6 regarding predecessors is that all the matches are better justified argumentatively and they gain a lot in variety and cinematic spectacularity. Undoubtedly, its creators have been obsessed in this chapter because in the background there is always an emotional tone, reflective and more mature and justified, although comic characters such as the always extravagant Goro Majima give the tragic story enough air so that we do not take it all seriously.
And this is great news, that Yakuza has found his best path perfectly, reinforcing what was applauded most since the first games, and eliminating some ideas that did not work at the same level. Now, to enjoy it thoroughly you have to know English or understand Japanese . Once again, the game came out in Europe and only with voices in Japanese and texts and subtitles in English .There are quite a few tools of sound settings, volumes, jump kinematics, acceleration of conversations, etc. It is not the game with much text.
Additional Info
Kiryu's mobile phone acts as HUD to keep track of all aspects of the game, from rapid save at any time to inventory sorter, receiver of mails with instructions, new advice and tasks, or attribute marker to improve as experience points are obtained. Especially in Kamurocho there is so much to do and discover that a clean and orderly organization is fundamental, and this smartphone gives the player that, in addition to a new photo mode in the first person that allows to capture some really precious stamps given the level of detail that Its designers have tried in every corner and space, exterior and interior, without loading times when entering the premises and buildings .
As we anticipated, the Dragon Engine that was already used for Yakuza Kiwami here goes up a few steps, getting a more stable framerate, more density of population in the streets, drawing distances sharper and further, better physical and particle effects, a spectacular finished in faces, animations and organic textures , and some very powerful planes in cinematics and QTE sequences of the combats. The motion capture sessions have given fantastic results. Yakuza 6 is very pleasing to the eye and recreates a current Japan that is careful to detail and really faithful with its forms, sounds, life …
Conclusion
This analysis can not be complete without mentioning the possibility of playing with another person the majority of mini - games and time trial activities that can be found in the main story. Obviously this mode for two players is anecdotal and not central, but it can serve to challenge friends or try to overcome our own marks and results, as well as to rehearse facing the appearance of the same tests in the story mode. And, best of all, there are recreational and complete games in there, including Virtua Fighter 5 .
But with all the good things that have been said about the game, probably for the fans the best delivery to date, it is also necessary to contextualize it in the current panorama of its genre. With other exponents of open criminal world's reigning, like GTA V even, they certainly miss different solutions for the same mission, dialogues that change events according to decisions, or some secondary ones with more background that are not based solely on altruistically helping the repetitive tasks of some NPCs.
The Yakuza 6 game, missions and rhythm scheme can be perceived as outdated for the times and what we have been seeing in other open world RPGs and missions . It is not necessary that this new title should be like The Witcher 3 or Final Fantasy X V, but it is archaic for the player not necessarily fan who seeks freshness of mechanics in a genre that, honestly, is full of exponents and names.
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is promised as the closing chapter of Kazuma Kiryu's story and an end to some of the classic conceptions of the series, which really start to feel exhausted after so many years and, if Sega wants continue in the limelight with this powerful brand, they need reformulation. The fans and the new discoverers can find each other in a dense, complex, sensitive story, with an aesthetic taste and strongly set, which also makes the most of its graphic aspect. We will have to see where the brand now goes from here.
Happy Gaming!!!!