Yakuza 6: The Song of Life Review - Cebu X-Geeks

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Thursday, May 10, 2018

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life Review


Hey guys, it's been a while since I have reviewed a game (real life caught up and smacked me around) but I have recently finished one of the manliest games I have played this year: Yakuza 6: The Song of Life.

If this game does not hit you in the feels, I don't know what you are made of, but hell, to each their own I guess. Anyways, here's my pure opinion (biased or not) of this manly game, with blood, tears, and snot combined.

Game Title: Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
Genre: Action-adventure game (manliest game evah)
Publisher: SEGA
Designer: Toshiro Nagoshi
Platform: PlayStation 4
Developers: SEGA, Ryu ga Gotoku Studio


Beautifully rendered Kamurucho and Hiroshima areas


One of the best parts of Yakuza 6 is its locations and how they were rendered in the game. They are absolutely gorgeous to look at and most of the areas are accessible. The locations are all lively and filled with random people from ordinary citizens to bimbos and yakuzas roaming around looking for a fight. Even if you are just looking around and walking through these maps, you are sure to be entertained one way or another.



The characters are beautifully rendered as well and lip-synching has never been so perfectly(?) done, BUT... As a somewhat of an OCD guy, there are just some small hiccups that really bother me during dialogues. I mean, cmon, Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 1 didn't have this problem but that dialogue freeze up and the weird in-game dialogue scenes look a bit weird. Sometimes the characters would just stare at each other without anything in the dialogue box, I mean, without a ….. written on it. And don't tell me that it's just natural because I saw a dialogue with a ….. written on it. This just... looks weird. And the way they talk during in-game dialogue... Yakuza 0 didn't have that problem but this one just looks like people nodding and opening their mouths in awkward timings. I hope there's a patch for this though.



The CGI scenes though are perfect. The emotions can be felt all throughout the scenes and you can feel all sorts of manly emotions like anger, tears, honor, etc. It's just perfect. No problems there.

So for me, graphically speaking, the score here would be a 7. I know, I know, but that awkward pauses during dialogue and the awkward timings on the lips and nodding just kinda... annoys me a bit.

Gameplay has never been so good and polished with the sixth title

Yakuza 6 has the most polished gameplay in the Yakuza series and the fighting style also matches Kazuma Kiryuu's age. No more other styles to unlock coz there's only one fighting style to use and that's the Dragon style. There is no more need to use cash for unlocking moves or special abilities, you only need experience for each category to “buy” those. Kiryuu only buys equipment, food, healing drinks and accessories now, no more weapons to use, which is a bummer. You can use environmental weapons that are scattered around town, which is weird... I mean, why is a sledgehammer, gun, knife, other dangerous weapons scattered town? Because yakuzas and gangsters are walking all around? That's total BS hahaha.



Fighting enemies is fine though with different ways to defeat one. Boss fights are sometimes annoying and challenging at the same time though. Some of them have annoying attacks that break your guard, stun you, or even topple you. The only way to lessen the damage is to evade, evade, and roll away. Get caught and you'll get into a lot of trouble. It's always satisfying to defeat these tough idiots though.

The minigames are not that much here, unfortunately... (No more billiards! Huhu!) Arcade games are still there though, the cabaret clubs, the live chat.... hehe... chat... videoke, and others. Compared to the previous titles, this one has fewer minigames. The sidequests are less too, the ones with their own stories. There's this one in-game smartphone app though that alerts Kiryuu with small sidequests that you can finish or ignore, which is good for experience gains. At least bowling's still there... ah well..


Clan wars prove to be fun as well. You can unlock secret characters with codes from the official website and other gaming boards or you can just recruit strong guys all around town if you want. It's challenging to fight against other players with their high-level clans, but it all depends on how you divide your forces and command them to victory.

My score for gameplay is a high 9 even if it has small hiccups along the way. And there are no billiards. Boo. There are a lot of things to do but it feels a bit... less. I love Yakuza due to its numerous minigames, meaningful sidequests, and awesome fighting gameplay. This just feels a bit nerfed down.. Just a bit.

Beautiful manly Yakuza music and manly dialogues

As always, SEGA always delivers when it comes to music and its voice acting. Note that I only have a problem with how the in-game dialogues are animated, not the voice acting itself, just to be clear. Yakuza 6 has one of the manliest soundtracks ever to grace the Yakuza series and it makes you feel so much manly drama all throughout. From finding out that Haruka's missing to that beautiful ending, Yakuza 6 delivers only the best that I felt so many emotions throughout my gameplay.



The voice acting is superb as always with the Japanese dubs since they never disappoint the audiences. You can always feel the emotion behind the character whenever they deliver a dialogue, even if it is a minor one. You can never go wrong with the voice acting with the Yakuza 6 cast.

All in all, soundtrack and voice acting is a perfect 10 for me.

You may want to play again just for fun and unlocking other features

Yakuza 6 also delivers when it comes to its replayability value. Roaming around Kamurucho or Hiroshima can be fun on its own with some minigames, clan wars, sidequests, that other sidequest feature, the cabaret club, and so on. There is so much to do in the game even without a new game plus. The Premium Adventure or the new game plus mode also proves to be fun for players who want to fight against stronger enemies with their current abilities, money, and equipment intact. You can also unlock other costumes as well.



Also, SEGA gives out free content in every update to spice up your gameplay. So it's all fun.

The replay value of Yakuza 6 is a strong 10 for me as well since I don't see any faults at all actually.

The best farewell for the greatest Yakuza hero ever

Don't get me started on Yakuza 6's story. SEGA has created the best way to send off one of the manliest heroes I have ever met in a game. I don't want to give away anything so I'll just say that from start to finish, I had a grand time enjoying the story. So many twists and turns in the plot and it made me question every damn time the chapter ended because it only made me ask another question again. One question was answered but it only made me ask another one again. Some parts were damn annoying, made me angry, made me super depressed, happy, and so much more. All in all, the whole journey is one helluva rollercoaster ride. And that ending was perfect. No need to add anything else or remove, it was the best way to send off Kiryuu Kazuma. It's no secret though since the next sequel will have a new protagonist.



Of course, I'm gonna score the story a perfect 10.

My total score for Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is a solid 9.2. It's been one helluva ride with Kazuma Kiryuu. So long, Dragon of Dojima.

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