Publisher/Developer: SEGA
Platform: PS4

If there's one good thing that has come out of the current generation of gaming it's the huge surge of people realising what they've been missing all these years in the Yakuza series. Ironic then that just as Yakuza explodes into bigger success than ever before, the final chapter in main character Kiryu’s story wraps up. On the other hand, the brand new ‘Dragon Engine’ & promise of future games makes Yakuza 6 both a fresh start & a final curtain. Does it pull it off? Let's find out!

The Dragon Engine (the first upgrade since Yakuza 3 in 2009) features massively improved  textures & lighting & conveys the 2 explorable towns of Kamurocho & Onomichi gorgeously with a moody atmosphere that injects more realism than previous games. The engine also boasts much improved physics, no longer are bikes, traffic cones & shop signs static objects & this also does wonders for the game’s much improved combat system.

Not only is the transition between exploration & combat now instant, with free reign to move around the city or even kick an enemy through a shop window to continue the fight inside with none of the previous loading screens, but the combat itself has a much more slick & fluid feel to it now. Objects around the environment can be kicked around, people can be knocked over much more easily & can go flying into these objects, breaking them to pieces. Kiryu’s combat style has been overhauled too to allow the player to deal with the increased enemy count in most battles compared to earlier games, it’s now possible to chain more moves together to adapt to the situation mid combo. A great balance has also been struck with improved enemy AI, they will now block a lot more, however the aforementioned ease of knocking enemies down along with the many companions that will now join Kiryu in battle throughout the game makes it a tough but fair change. In short, the combat looks & feels as fantastic as ever.

Exploration has seen a few quality of life improvements due not only to the aforementioned lack of loading screens, allowing you to simply walk into restaurants & order seamlessly but this is taken further with some back rooms & office buildings being completely explorable. The best of these allows a much needed shortcut through Cafe Alps onto Tenkaichi Street. Beyond mere graphics, the world design itself seems a great deal more detailed than before. Cars are no longer only in inaccessible areas and in the new rural town of Onomichi especially there are many small houses all with the quaint character of a real Japanese neighbourhood.

The world is of course, once again full of side activities from arcades to mahjong parlours & there are quite a few new activities to do. You can befriend stray cats by feeding them & they'll then be taken in by Kamurocho’s cat cafe. You can hit the Internet cafe to chat to girls who love taking their clothes off for some reason (and how this didn't get censored in the West is beyond me!) There's also a baseball manager type minigame which is an interesting inclusion despite me having no clue how the hel it works or what is going on.

The biggest side activity is another new addition which sees Kiryu getting wrapped up in a war between 2 street gangs & is a simple yet fun real time strategy where you pit waves of units against a defending force. Each unit sent out is effective against a specific type like grenadiers against heavies, heavies against fighters etc. but perhaps the real fun comes in recruiting & leveling up hero units which can make use of powerful special attacks when deployed in a fight. It's a bit of a shame this system did not play a more integral part in the main story like the real estate business did in Yakuza Zero but nonetheless, a welcome addition to the game & an interesting take on RTS.

Once again, every activity you partake in works towards leveling up Kiryu to unlock a wide array of skills. This time experience is divided into 5 separate categories: strength, agility, spirit, technique & charm. Each new ability requires differing amounts of these & possibly the most effective way of levelling is by eating some of the games huge array of food. Once you’re full though, you can’t eat more which keeps the balance of the game finely tuned to the end. Items make a return too, though they have been streamlined a lot compared to some previous Yakuza games, weapons are now more abundant in battles but break almost immediately so there’s no reason to collect them any more.     

The story & characters have always been the strongest aspect of the Yakuza series & Yakuza 6 is no exception. While many of the series’ regulars make only small appearances, the new characters introduced carry this story beautifully. A lot of this is centered around a group of characters from a small Yakuza family in Onomichi headed up by Hirose, played by Beat Takeshi. At first hostile to Kiryu, the family gradually accept him & this arc not only plays out naturally but is full of heartwarming moments as well as the series staple humour. Without going in to spoilers, all I can say is that this intense & satisfying finale to Kiryu’s story is another triumph in video game storytelling & puts most other video games (especially Japanese ones) to shame with its depth & sheer volume of relatable, funny, downright loveable characters.

The Yakuza series has in the past pulled off the impossible by improving on its previous game time & time again. This time Yakuza 6 couldn't quite follow suit due to the sheer ambitiousness of Yakuza 5 with its 5 playable characters across 5 different cities, but Yakuza 6 is still one of the best in the series and sports an incredible amount of improvements that could carry the series well into the future.

Pros:

• Video game storytelling at its best.

• Major technical improvements.

• Gorgeous environments.

Cons:

• Minor physics bugs.

• Newcomers won't know what the hel is going on.