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Yakuza 6 makes Kamurocho feel like a new playground once again

by Amr (@siegarettes)

• Yakuza 6
  
• Developer- SEGA
  
• Publisher- SEGA
  
• PS4
  

Becoming familiar with the Yakuza series means becoming familiar with Kamurocho, the bustling entertainment district that the series calls home. And like Kiryu Kazuma I’ve come to accept that Kamurocho is a place I can’t escape, but also a home of sorts. The are others cities, each with their own character and charm, but the heart of Yakuza has always been Kamurocho. So I’m pleased to see that Yakuza 6 has once again brought new life to this city. 

Yakuza 6 feels firmly modern. Not only in its facsimile of its Tokyo tourist town, but in the basic feeling of moment to moment play. There’s still plenty of the old spirit of PS2 RPGs around, but the world is much less segmented, and full of small touches that make it feel more alive. After playing so many of Yakuza games it feels deeply bizarre to walk up to a door and walk right through it rather than see a loading screen. Despite that it still feels philosophically aligned with the approach of the old games, with its architecture still firmly rooted in communicating a sense of city above all else. 

In other open world games the world often feels like a delivery vehicle for endless activities. No space exists without providing some gameplay benefit. And while there’s plenty of side quests, collectibles, and mini-games in Yakuza 6, there’s also spaces that just exist. Rooftops gardens, offices, interconnected buildings, cafes and establishments that people clearly hang out it, but can’t be interacted with because Kiryu clearly doesn’t feel like he has business there. This extends to new details like the working vending machines. They technically provide some benefit, but they feel more like they’re there because wouldn’t it be cool if you could not only see every individual drink but buy them too? And you know, it definitely is.

On top of that it’s finally possible to explore in first person. It feels fantastic, both because it let me get a much better look at the people and places of the game, and because the narrow streets can often feel cramped when walking around in Kiryu’s absurdly wide frame. Kiryu still has the same stumbling movement that often had me unintentionally walking into scenery, but the addition of physics to environmental objects makes it both easier to navigate and in a roundabout way kind of ends up adding to Kiryu’s characterization. Seeing signs, bikes, and furniture be launched out of the way, or straight up disintegrate in some cases, upon coming into contact with Kiryu, really solidifies him as a foolish brick wall of a man in an endearing way. 

The seamless world also benefits the combat, allowing fights to spill from the streets into the interiors of convenience stores and cafes, and allowing you take on a lot more enemies at a time. To adjust for this Kiryu gains a few new moves. Most important are his ability to swing an enemy into the crowd around him, and a parry that’ll redirect enemy attacks. There’s also an Extreme Heat move that gives you access to new attacks and heat moves, and allows you to instantly pick up items in the world to bash people with, similar to the Beast style in Yakuza 0 and Kiwami. 

Like previous games, Kiryu isn’t exactly a graceful man, so fights often get messy and I was never able to have a clean fight. I’ve made peace with the fact that Kiryu is someone who’ll get through a brawl on sheer toughness and by chugging down health drinks. The new additions unfortunately exasperate some of the messier aspects of the combat, and make Heat moves and other techniques feel even more situational, meaning I saw a lot less of them. The Extreme Heat mode in particular ended up with me picking up items or burning my Heat meter when I didn’t want to, or on the wrong targets. 

The brawling still ends up being fun, and I spent a lot of nights looking for trouble and seeing what situations I could get into, but there was less for me to look forward to in terms of mastering combat. Instead it was the suite of new activities and side stories that picked up the slack, once again providing the drama and humor the series is known for. Once again, Yakuza managed to provide a satisfying playground with an endless momentum that no other series has quite matched. 

And it’s good that this playground feels so fresh because Yakuza 6′s core melodrama feels much weaker this time around. It’s concerned with the legacy of Kiryu, bringing in factions from his past and detailing the reverberations of his time with the Tojo Clan. These reverberations hit everyone from national crime organizations to his would be daughter, Haruka. And Yakuza 6 is keen to explore this range in attempts to answer questions about what a man’s legacy should be, and where Kiryu, a representative of the past, stands in a world run by fresh blood without concern for the old ways. 

Yakuza 6 never reaches the sprawling absurdity that gave Yakuza 5 its momentum, nor does it feel as tightly woven as the intrigue of Yakuza 0. It keeps its focus contained to a small number of locations, but spreads itself too thin by introducing too many factions and doing little with them in an attempt to reckon with the impact of Kiryu’s life, and in some ways, the history of the series itself. The core cast is still a joy to hang out with, but the plot relies too much on stringing Kiryu along and forcing him into reluctant situations, even more than the series usually does. 

The series’ conservative streak once again drags it down as well. While it never reaches the pitiable depths that other entries do, Yakuza 6 once again sidelines all its women in its reckoning with its ideas of masculine responsibility, and dips back into the well of xenophobia for its depictions of the Koreans and Chinese. While entries like Yakuza 0 feel far more egregious in terms of their most exploitative scenes, they also manage to create strong characterization and sympathy in ways that Yakuza 6 doesn’t. Again, it’s not ruinous, but it is hollow in a way that stands in contrast to how vibrant other parts of the game feel. 

Even with these problems, Yakuza 6 still manages to feel perpetually compelling. There’s something about the way the game threads together substories, side activities and absurd story revelations that keeps the pacing from dragging down. Every time I played it I found myself swept away, managing to play longer than I thought I would so I could see the next story beat or fit in a few more brawls or substories. Yakuza 6′s world and characters remain charming, and there are few pleasures like being able to see them again one last time.