A highly polished Yakuza game with plenty of tweaks, upgrades and improvements to the traditional game play formula. The cities look prettier than ever with plenty of atmosphere, great graphics and plenty of hidden treasures to find, full of funny sub-stories, involving mini-games and lots of charm and ambience. The story has an interesting plot with a good amount of tension and drama and memorable characters, although Kiryu and Majima continue to steal the show as the main stars.
Progress can feel a bit slow at times and as the scale of the game increases, it can become a bit daunting, especially as you become familiar with the format and level of repetition required for completion. The combat is fun and stylish, but the ragdoll physics are a bit too over the top and the skill upgrade system could have been simpler. There’s plenty of side activities which vary in quality and humour, although not all of them are new. Some are much weaker than others due to fiddly mechanics or unclear victory requirements, but once you get the hang of them, they are mostly fun. The Cabaret Club is entertaining but like Majima Construction, the lack of depth to it makes it a bit of a chore and there are far too many Bouncer missions to get through.