The Eternal Dragon.

Kazuma Kiryu, the Dragon of Dojima.

That name and title alone has become synonymous with the “Yakuza” series, which for some reason, many believe to be a sort of “Japanese Grand Theft Auto”. This is of course, inaccurate in more ways than one, as the two series have more differences than they have similarities, but in terms of the prestige each of the series have in their respective homelands, I can see the comparison.

While the recognition for the Yakuza series has been growing over the years in the States, last year’s excellent ‘0’ entry really took the franchise notoriety to the next level. While “Kiwami” was released after ‘0’ in the States, that was a straight remake of the original game, and now with ‘6’, the series moves forward in earnest.

However, with this entry titled “Song of Life”, it was hinted to be the final chapter in the legend of Kazuma Kiryu and upon hearing this, my anticipation for the title grew to a fever pitch.

The visuals on display are the best in the series so far with exception attention to detail.

MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: PS4
Played on: PS4 Pro
Multiplayer: Raid battle mini game, online leaderboards
Length: 30~ hours

Following the events of Yakuza 5, Kazuma decides to turn himself over to the police and accept a prison sentence for his past crimes as a method of atonement and also as a way to keep the limelight off himself as well as the people he cares for.

When he is finally released from prison years later, he learns that his adopted daughter Haruka has gone missing and goes searching for her only to finally find her at death’s door after a hit & run incident. Even more surprising, he learns that she had become a mother during those years he’s been away and vows to take care of the child and find answers to what’s really going.

While the moment to moment revelations certainly kept things interesting as I was left guessing exactly what was going, on what stood out to me the most was the one prevalent theme in the narrative- one of family and the bonds that they share. It is certainly a topic that has been explored before, but given Kazuma’s history as an orphan and all the people he has loved and lost along the way, it really made the events in “The Song of Life” hit home harder than I could have ever anticipated.

It felt as though my knowledge of Kazuma’s previous exploits has given me intimate knowledge about who he was as a person, and even during the quiet moments where nothing was being said, the sheer magnitude and significance of even a simple gesture was made all too clear. Subtlety is a lost art form of storytelling, especially in video games, and when I saw it executed so well, I couldn’t help but applaud the writing and performances present here as the voice talents really brought everything they had to the table to sell every scene.

It hasn’t been that long since developers started really shying away from long cut scenes that go on for more than 10-20 minutes at a time, but the way “Song of Life” told its story, I was thoroughly hooked from the very beginning and never for a single moment felt bored or thought it was going too slowly during the lengthy story segments.

Fate, mostly.

The gameplay in Yakuza 6 remains familiar as it concentrates mostly on hand to hand brawls but the combat engine presented here felt quick and responsive in a way that made switching from target to target easier than ever before. However, during certain parts of the game, there were fights involving over a dozen enemies trying to kill me at once, and during those moments they would constantly knock me down to the ground and stun lock me, which was more annoying than challenging. Given how I liked to wait for the perfect opportunity to counter my opponents, I had to change up my playstyle to just mashing on the attack button to whittle down their numbers, which wasn’t as satisfying as those tense duels with one of the numerous bosses in the game.

Thanks to the new visual flair, each of the hits felt satisfying to land and the heat action moves were a sight to behold, some of which quite literally made me wince in pain as I felt like I had just pulled off a fatality more than a combat maneuver. Even though Kazuma retained many of his signature moves, there was still plenty of room for growth both in terms of his pure stats as well as the moves that he knew.

AI helper heat moves are back and they’re glorious.

As I loved having more options to dispose of the common trash on the streets when they foolishly challenged me, I always opted for the moves more than stats, and when I gained all the experience required to finally learn and max out everything, I felt totally unstoppable. Which makes sense because come on now, I’m the Dragon of Mother Fucking Dojima, alright?

Exhibit C: Dragon of Mother Fucking Dojima

To get the experience required to level up my stats and learn new skills, I could do a number of different things from simply eating at a restaurant when I became hungry or do one of the dozens of side-stories that I would start simply by running around in the streets and happening upon an event.

These bite sized adventures aren’t throwaway fodder either, as many of them were quite compelling in their own right, expanding on the world of Yakuza as a whole as I was given the opportunity to check back in with familiar faces from the past to see what they’re up to all these years later. They also gave me ideas on other possible activities and gave me an introduction of sorts to see if I was interested in delving further into the scenario.

In one such event, I found a man who was addicted to live chatting with sexy women on a PC that he was in trouble with his real girlfriend. What followed was a series of laugh-filled moments where I believe I took what is one of best screenshots I’ve ever taken in any video game.

At the end of the misadventure, the man ended up becoming reinvigorated for his love of live chatting that he just decides to break things off girlfriend for good.

Mission accomplished, I’d say.

Given how much I enjoyed the sub-stories, it was a shame that it was actually quite difficult to try to track them down, as they unlocked at certain points of the story in very specific parts of the map, which meant I basically had to walk around the entire city after each major story event which felt like a waste of time when I ended up not finding any new ones.

There was also the inclusion of an app on Kazuma’s phone that would alert him to quick small events going on in his immediate vicinity, but compared to the sub-stories those felt uninteresting by comparison, but they could safely be ignored without any real consequence as the rewards they gave were rather insignificant to the scheme of things.

Outside of those, there were still the arcades where I could play SEGA classics as well as more modern hits like Virtua Fighter 5 and Puyo Puyo, both of which included a multiplayer option, as if the game needed more value for the buck.

Darts, batting, mahjong, karaoke, spear fishing and much more rounded out the experience, and as most of them had an overarching sub-story revolving around them, they felt more involving than the standard fare distractions.

Lastly, the new major addition was the inclusion of a clan and raid battles where Kazuma led the Kiryu clan and sent them off to battle other clans in what can be best described as a rudimentary RTS. There was also some RPG elements as well, as I could go around the city looking for new recruits and level them up by sending them off to battle, increasing their stats and overall combat efficiency. There was an online component to the clan battles and I was able to challenge other player’s clans in the leaderboards to try and claim the top spot.

While it isn’t going to knock Starcraft off the RTS throne anytime soon, I found the activity to be quite addictive and hands down the best way I found to make money very, very quickly.

This looks more complicated than it actually is.

What Yakuza 6 meant to me as someone who has followed the series from the very beginning is a true culmination of 12 years worth of characters and story. It’s an absolute emotional rollercoaster ride, packaged together with some of the best content the series has offered to date and polished to an absolute shine. “The Song of Life” may very well represent the final chapter in the legendary chronicles of the Dragon of Dojima. However, as is the case with every great legend, his story will live on, having left an indelible mark in gaming history as one of the most memorable and important characters to have ever graced the medium.

Fun Tidbit – I’ve seen the new character announcement for Yakuza 7 and I can’t really comment on it. Too soon man, too soon.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.