Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

This is the final chapter in Kiryu's story, and also my least favorite. Keep in mind that the series is excellent, so that's like saying that Mega Man 1 is my least favorite Mega Man on the NES; it's still really good. I think part of my issue is that this runs on the then-new Dragon Engine, which Kiwami 2 used later on; the combat never really felt quite right to me, and that might just be a personal thing. There were also parts where you have some low-key platforming elements, but you don't have a jump button or a prompt or anything, so I found myself occasionally or even repeatedly walking into an instant death pit. There were also a few weird story beats, like the part near the beginning where Kiryu just goes berserk and does something completely out of character; you'll know it when you see it. Overall, the game just felt uncomfortable, too, but that may have been the point; right at the beginning, Kiryu says something like, "Why do I always wind up back in this damn city." It doesn't seem like much, but until then, I'd never really thought about how Kiryu had felt about it all. It could be that the game was just conveying that he's old and tired, and just wants it all to be done. Aside from that, you've got a lot of the same old elements that make the series great, starting right off with some lovable new characters and a heaping helping of melodrama. As was to be expected, the game attempts to tie up any possible loose ends in Kiryu's story by THROWING THEM ALL INTO A BLENDER AT ONCE. Great stuff. The experience system is cool, giving you 5 different kinds to earn and spend on different skills, even if what you need is a little off-balance from what you get. Plenty of substories and minigames again, with some familiar faces as well as some great new entries. You'll find more than enough to enjoy, if you've come this far.

Both this game and Yakuza 2 were impossible for me to complete due to constant crashing. This game will 100% crash duning the chapter 6 boss fight against Joon. None of the usual fixes like lowering graphic settings or giving the game more memeroy will stop the crashing. A possible solution I have seen on the Steam forums is to install an older version of Yakuza 6 rather then using the latest version. That solution is not possible here on GOG due this site only having 1 version of the game. So it's safer to buy this game on Steam rather then GOG.

Hoo-boy, what a letdown this game was. The biggest selling point about Y6 was that it was to be the swan song of Kiryu. Well, was it? Obviously not as he's in at least 3 games after this one, two of which include him as a protagonist. When your whole selling point is moot, what exactly is left? Setting the meaningfulness of the ending aside, when you think "finale" you expect an epic conclusion, right? Things come together, mysteries unravel, huge climax at the end and so forth. One problem is that Yakuza games barely have any tying thread between them, most plot points, characters, etc. become irrelevant once you reach the next title. Characters seemed important are left in the dust and never seen again. So again, what can you expect from this? What you have left is a wholly separate and standalone story with a completely new cast of people, and an antagonist you won't even remember once the game is over. The antagonist is just that unremarkable. Heck, you'll be lucky to care about the friendly characters. I don't necessarily approve of all retcons and characters in Y0, but at least it's memorable. I played 0 at launch PS4, 6 after it was on game pass and I couldn't name a single character from 6, where I can still remember most from 0. Beyond the story, you would also expect this to be an improvement gameplaywise from 0 and Kiwami 1, the titles preceding this one. Well, no. The new Dragon Engine offers graphical fidelity and ragdolls, but little else. Kiryu controls like a slug until you improve his abilities by a lot and you're once again left with a single style instead of multiple styles. It's just a mediocre game all-in-all. All I can really say for positives are that, setting aside the monotonous gang mini-game, the new mini-games were actually mini instead of putting you through hours of repetition. And some of the cutscenes involving Takeshi Kitano were funny. Too bad the game didn't end like a Kitano movie.

95% of the first hour is just sitting through ugly cutscenes. I'm not sure if the graphic design improves throughout the game as I uninstalled it after being met with horrible facial animations and the Unity asset-flip looking first area. Cannot say much about the combat aside from the underwhelming tutorial fight.