Yakuza 4 Preview

The Yakuza series has always been a cult class in the US. The Yakuza games are very big in Japan, and the 5th entry in the Yakuza franchise is currently on the way. Unfortunately due to some poor advertising by Sega of America the Yakuza games aren't that popular and the US nearly didn't receive Yakuza 3 at all. It wasn't until fans complained and nagged Sega that they finally brought over Yakuza 3 to the US, although it was a year or two after it had released in Japan and Sega actually removed a few features such as a Japanese trivia game and Japanese hostess bars. Thanks to Yakuza 3 being a mild success in North America Sega is bringing Yakuza 4 to the US in March, and the hostess bar will be in tact this time.

Yakuza 4 is a 3rd person beat-em-up RPG set in an open world. Sound different? That's because there's not many other games on the market like it. You go running around the streets of Japan looking for mission objectives, and those mission objectives usually involve you fighting a group of enemies in hand-to-hand or weapon-to-weapon combat. Once you complete the mission you have the ability to level up your character and improve their stats. When you're not selecting missions you are free to run around the city and do a variety of things, including Karaoke, visiting arcades, and playing baseball.

Yakuza 4 has always been a story-heavy series. While Yakuza 1 received a full American voiceover all of the subsequent games have retained their Japanese voice acting and had merely English subtitles. Yakuza 4 follows the same trend as the last two games in only having English subtitles, with no other option than Japanese voice-overs. In this writer's opinion reading the subtitles is something that you become used to, although I can definitely understand those who get frustrated reading all of the text just to understand what's going on. Considering the majority of Americans don't speak Japanese Sega should really consider bringing back voice-over translations for the Yakuza franchise. Maybe give people an option to switch between Japanese and English voice-actors.

One thing different to Yakuza 4 is that you will play 4 different characters in this Yakuza game, as opposed to the standard one. The main protagonist of the series Kaz is still playable, but you'll also get to try out three additional characters including a loan shark, an escaped convict, and a cop. Each character has a slightly different fighting style with different moves and combos to break up some of the repetitiveness of the previous games. All 4 of these characters can pick-up and use weapons, and all 4 characters can be leveled up individually.

One thing that Yakuza has always gotten right is the ability to make player's feel as if they're really beating the crap out of somebody. The game controls like a mixture between a 3-d fighting game and an old beat-em-up like Streets of Rage. Yakuza implements a combo system that is simple enough to pick-up and play yet deep enough for veteran games to sit down and master. The camera will slow down and zoom in on brutal shots making the player feel as if they're really inflicting some serious damage. Yakuza also features special moves which are flashy and fun as well as finishing moves to provide a satisfying conclusion to your fight. Weapons can also be used during fights. Weapons can either be picked up from the environment or if you're already holding the weapons you can select them at any time during the fight by using the d-pads. There's a strong variety of weapons to choose from including nunchucks, spears, and katanas.

One thing that has always bothered me during my playtime in the Yakuza games is the use of random battles. While roaming the streets searching for missions or just strolling the streets seeing what the game has to offer you will be approached by enemies who want to fight. These fighters aren't very hard and don't level up your character as much as you'd like. Considering the game has been out in Japan for almost a year now it's hard to imagine this is something that will be changed for the final US release.

With that said Yakuza 4 is still a very fun and very unique game. The graphics have received a major upgrade since the last title, and the addition of 3 new characters to play as instead of just Kaz is more than welcomed. English voice-overs would have been nice, but if you can get past that detail Yakuza 4 is still an enjoyable game. Look for Yakuza 4 to hit the PlayStation 3 in the US on March 15. The demo currently on the PlayStation Network allows you to test out all 4 characters in arena style fights against multiple opponents.

James Lewis