The game from 2010 has been remastered for the PS4 with one of Yakuza 4's main protagonists, Masayoshi Tanimura, being recast and getting a visual makeover.
Kamurocho, the entertainment district, is about to be bloodbath again. This time, we have four rising dragons. Each of the protagonists has a different fighting style and each of them has to go through sets of impossible trials to find their destiny. The line between game and reality is further blurred, earlier, in 2009, Sega hosts a beauty pageant, and the seven winners became models of their game avatars. Some of them are bar girls, some are hostesses, visit the "play spots" with them, ask them to date in the spas and sing karaoke with them. The Rising Dragon is looking for a successor, will you be it?
It may still feel a bit like Deja Vu coming from 3, but this is a must-play action game nevertheless, and would set the stage for the crown jewel of the collection. If you have to pick one game from the 3 to buy individually, this still isn’t the one of choice, but it’s pretty damn close, and immensely enjoyable nevertheless.
Yakuza 4 shines, even if Kiryu plays less of a role than he is used to. The additional characters provide a unique spin on the traditional Yakuza formula, and more importantly, I enjoyed playing all of them. I'd say that Kiryu is the weakest part about the game, as he feels shoehorned into the game just because he is synonymous with the franchise.
While Yakuza 4 Remastered doesn’t offer much in the way of quality of life updates or any substantial presentation improvements, the entire package is still solid. It knows what it is and what it wants to do, and is ultimately an improvement over its direct predecessor in a number of ways.
Yakuza 4 is such a well made video game that even after 10 years it still feels fun and entertaining. It has improved on the all aspects of the last entry and introduces some truly great protagonists.
I was worried that Yakuza 4 wouldn’t win me over as Kiryu would have to share his screentime with three other newcomers, but that concern disappeared pretty quickly. I should never doubt those screenwriters, as they have managed to come up not only with brand new characters that were extremely likable, but they have also managed to intertwine their...
