REVIEW : Yakuza 6: The Song of Life ( PS4 / PS4 Pro)
Yakuza series combines amazing combat with brilliant story telling. Yakuza 6 is the final chapter is Dragon of Dojima Story and its spectacular. The new engine pushes the series to new heights while still remaining true to its past.
You take the role of Kazuma Kiryu, who is thinking about retiring to peaceful island of Okinawa after a brief jail time. Things are going according to plan until Haruka meets a tragic accident which sets of chained events and you end up fighting the government.
The game packs in so many ‘wow’ moments with amazing story telling that it is the best conclusion Kiryu’s story could have got. Amazing voice acting and seamless localization make it possible.
Yakuza 6 does a good job to entertain players new to the series by reminisce tool which allows players to identify key characters and narrative of the game.
Yakuza 6 is set in two cities Kamurocho and Hiroshima. Kamurocho is the same city which was part of Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami. Yakuza 6 offers good amount of additional content, so old players will still find something new to explore. Yakuza 6 provides many more stories within the familiar place.
The new gameplay engine is amazing and there are no loading screens at all. From moving around to entering a fight, everything is seamless.
While most of the story takes place in Kamurocho, Hiroshima is just as memorable. The locations have been created with amazing amount of attention to detail.
As compared to previous entries Kiryu has only one fighting style which can be upgraded over the course of the game with skills. Even the ability to craft your own weapons has been stripped of, though the environment is littered with weapons of mass destruction. You can even avoid few fights by buying certain equipment.
To avoid fights from feeling monotonous, there is heat actions. As soon as the Heat Guage is full you can unleash a flurry of attacks by hitting triangle. The combat does feel easy at times but Yakuza 6 has difficulty options and we woul recommend you to play the game at higher difficulty.
Though the combat has always been the stand out point for Yakuza series, the story is not far behind and the substories in Yakuza 6 are so brilliant that you will lose track of the time.
Yakuza 6 still has vast variety of mini games. Even old Sega games like Outrun and Virtua Fighter 5 show up in mini games.
Clan creator is a major side activity in Yakuza 6. In Hiroshima, Kiryu is identified by young gang members who are looking to abolish JUSTIS. The faction is led by actual wrestlers and the mode mostly plays out like RTS. Kiryu would be tasked with assembling soldiers in hierarchy along with leaders to fight at frontline with each leader having a unique ability.
The balance between variety of side quests and main plot is very well struck in Yakuza 6. Yakuza 6 accepts its over the top sequences and betters them over the past enteries.
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