Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

With its open world and beat 'em up gameplay, it's natural to want to compare Yakuza to Grand Theft Auto and Streets of Rage. But as far as I'm concerned, this long-running Sega franchise has more in common with Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and all of those cheesy soap operas my grandmother used to be addicted to. When you strip back the constant street fights and the full-back tattoos, you'll find a convoluted story filled with over-the-top family drama, shady business dealings, unexpected love triangles, baby troubles, people coming back from the dead and backstabbing, backstabbing, backstabbing. So much backstabbing. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is a game that delights in all of this drama and isn't afraid to embrace its goofy side, which is why it continues to prove itself as video gaming's most enduring soap opera.

This is, once again, the story of Kazuma Kiryu. He's older now, pushing fifty, and doing what he can to disconnect with his violent past. He is no longer a yakuza, choosing instead to step down as the Fourth Chairman of the famed Tojo Clan and open an orphanage for stranded children. Of course, trouble has a way of finding Kiryu and it won't be long before he's forced to resort to ugly tactics in order to help the people he loves the most.

One of those people is Haruka, who has recently gone missing and seems to be in great danger. This leads to our hero inadvertently getting in the middle of a gang war, which turns out to be a lot more complicated that it sounds. Oh, and there's a baby. If you're confused, then you know exactly how Kiryu feels. He's looking for answers and ready to punch literally every single person in Tokyo in order to get his way.

What I like about Yakuza 6 is that it forces us to investigate what happened and peel back the layers one by one. There's a compelling mystery here that takes Kiryu out of his comfort zone and into uncharted territory. This means leaving his regular stomping ground and traveling to Hiroshima in an effort to find clues about Haruka. Before long he's making friends and getting himself into even more trouble with local gangs. If you've played a Yakuza game, then none of this will surprise you. It's the Kazuma way.

When it comes down to it, not much about Yakuza 6 is going to surprise long-time fans. This is a game that plays into the formulas in both good and bad ways. There's still a lot of street fighting, lengthy cinemas and tons of mini-games. You'll roam around the modestly-sized cities getting jumped by gangs and taking on side-quests. This is very much a continuation that doesn't try to shake things up too much.

If anything, Yakuza 6 scales things back a bit. Not in terms of mini-games and side-quests (they are still great), but in a lot of ways this feels like a throwback to earlier games. The sequel returns to only giving you one playable character, which helps to streamline the story and keep things moving. On top of that, Kiryu only has one fighting style, something that took a little getting used to after spending so many hours playing Yakuza Kiwami last year. And speaking of hours, this game is considerably shorter than the last few Yakuza games, clocking in at less than 20 hours.

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The good news is that the story is compelling and Sega knows how to keep us hooked with plot twists and cliffhangers. Like any good mystery, the game offers a steady drip of tantalizing information that constantly keeps you guessing. It taps into all of the best soap opera cliches to give us one major reveal after another, all leading to a reasonably satisfying conclusion. I say "reasonably satisfying" because the game ends up undoing much of what I liked about the ending in a lengthy post-credits cinema. I have a lot of good and bad things to say about that ending.

On something of a side note, I think it's worth mentioning that this game spends a lot of time reminding us that Kiryu is getting old. It's not an exaggeration to say that at least fifty percent of the people he runs into either call him "old" or "grandpa." From a storytelling perspective, I love the idea of Kiryu forced to embrace the aging process and accept that he won't be able to street fight forever. But the game doesn't do much with this concept beyond calling him old a bunch. He may be pushing 50, but he still fights like he's 25. He has no problem taking on a dozen trained gang members, all of which are half his age. Maybe it's nitpicking, but I want to see the age mean something to this character. This series wants to have it both ways.

I suppose you could also say that about the side-quests, which take the game in some surprisingly goofy directions. With the main quest often being deadly serious, it's fun to have to fight ghosts, help a time traveler and even get to the bottom of a Freaky Friday situation where two people swap bodies. There are a lot of these side missions and they do a good job of bringing some much needed humor to the otherwise dark material. That said, going straight from gang war to mascot mini-game is a bit jarring at times.

Speaking of which, the batch of mini-games in Yakuza 6 is, to put it bluntly, incredible. In fact, there's a chance they overshadow the rest of the game. You, of course, get to sing karaoke, throw darts, play a game of baseball, scuba dive and more. But the real highlight here are the five arcade games, which not only include genuine Sega classics like Super Hang-On, Fantasy Zone and Space Harrier, but also two-player versions of both Puyo Puyo and Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown. You have no idea how much time I wasted playing through these games, and there's an argument to be made that Yakuza 6 is worth buying for Virtua Fighter 5 alone.

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That's not to say that all of the mini-games are worth playing. One of the weakest links is a terrible real-time strategy-style gang war that sees you sending people to fight for you. I like the idea of searching the city for new people to recruit and eventually use in these battles, but the execution of the mode is all wrong. The same goes for a mini-game centered around calming a crying baby. Between using the analog sticks and shaking the controller, I'm convinced that this mini-game doesn't actually work. On the other hand, there's a good chance it's not that far off from trying to calm a real baby.

Of course, the game has a few other things going for it beyond the incredible selection of mini-games, such as the great looking visuals. No matter if it's the always-bustling Tokyo streets or the quiet and secluded back alleys found in Hiroshima, these feel like real, lived in cities that aren't just some video game background. There's an attention to detail in every house, store and playground. The same goes with the expressive faces, all of which look incredible on the PlayStation 4. This is a sharp looking game, especially in some of the more epic battles.

In a lot of ways, Yakuza 6 feels like an incredibly safe sequel. That's not to say it's a bad sequel, but it certainly plows a lot of familiar ground. While I largely enjoyed the mystery and couldn't wait to see what would happen next, I was a little disappointed that it ditched some of the franchise's previous enhancements and scaled things back. Thankfully, the pulpy story and the incredible mini-games help to overshadow some of the weaker elements. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is another solid game in the long-running series, but some fans may be hoping to see more from the franchise.