In July, I wanted to play a game that would make me smile, so I turned once again to the Yakuza Remastered Collection and moved on to Yakuza 4.

While the past few games focused mostly on Kiryu, Yakuza 4 switches things up in a big way by having four playable characters.

Unlike Yakuza 0, which alternated between its two protagonists, Yakuza 4 has you play through each character’s story before it all comes together at the end.

This has the effect of feeling almost like four miniature Yakuza games, although each story follows the previous one instead of taking place at the same time like I originally thought they might.

Anyway, I liked all of the characters story-wise and enjoyed the change of pace.

(Gameplay-wise, each character has his own combat style, which means that as someone who prefers faster styles, Saejima’s combat was agony for me. But I still love him.)

I liked seeing how the different characters’ stories all came together, and there were definitely some exciting points in the plot as it unfolded. Unfortunately, there were also some goofy moments, and not necessarily in a comedic way. I can stretch my suspension of disbelief, but Yakuza 4 requires a bit more of that than any other entry in the series I’ve played so far.

Still, the rest of the game is full of Yakuza goodness like entertaining substories and wacky Revelations to learn new moves. Several substories also follow up on substories from previous games, which I really liked. The Yakuza series might not exactly have an overarching story (although Yakuza 4 drew on knowledge of the previous games more than ever), but I love that side characters and even minor substory characters develop over time.

And why did the series ever drop Revelations? They’re great!

I probably spent less time on the mini-games than in the past, but that’s partly because none especially stood out to me and partly because Lost Judgment is practically knocking on the door.

Anyway, Yakuza 4 comes in at the lower end of my Yakuza rankings, but a weak Yakuza game is still a great game. I enjoyed my time with these four characters and their questionable plot, and I look forward to reaching the final part of the Yakuza Remastered Collection in the future!

My journey through the Yakuza Remastered Collection began last year when I started Yakuza 3 Remastered, but then it got put on hold for Bloodborne (which got put on hold for 13 Sentinels), so it took me a while to get back to it.

But once I finished Bloodborne, I returned to Yakuza 3 and reached the end this weekend… and even though it gets a lot of criticism, I actually really enjoyed it.

There are two main things people often name when criticizing Yakuza 3.

The first is the combat. Enemies block nearly constantly, although in return it felt to me like Kiryu’s attacks hit a lot harder when they do land. You end up spending a lot of time waiting for an opening, so while the combat is fine, I’d agree that it’s less fun than in the others I’ve played.

The other big point people bring up is the slice-of-life sections. Kiryu has moved to Okinawa to take care of the orphanage, and you spend a significant amount of time there early on.

So while the main plot is teased before flashing back to the events that built up to it, your early objectives will involve playing with the kids, helping them with trouble at school, dealing with conflicts that come up between them, and so on. It’s a quieter, calmer look at life in the series with a lot of cute moments, and I enjoyed it.

The main story itself is also really good. It starts out with a bit of mystery and goes through some entertaining twists and turns as it builds. Some moments late in the game are seriously emotional, and the main antagonist is great.

Yakuza 3 has a number of entertaining substories, too. Some are bland, but others are really good. Then there are some of the fun little details in this game, such as how Kiryu learns certain special moves by witnessing wacky events in the city and blogging about them.

It was also interesting for me to see not only how the Yakuza series progressed, but also what seemed to be the earliest groundwork for systems used in Judgment. Chases, a substory where I had to follow someone… and one of the most fun substories was even a murder investigation!

(Oh, and that samurai movie substory? Yeah, that’s not making me want Kenzan and Ishin any less!)

Overall, I had a lot of fun with Yakuza 3 and was delighted to find out that it’s such a great game. I’ll be taking a break from Yakuza for now, but I expect to return to the Yakuza Remastered Collection later this year to start Yakuza 4!

If you’ve played Yakuza 3, what did you think of it?