Boss fights in this game are equivalent to torture, grabber enemies are annoying BUT! Akiyama and Tanimura are sexy af so 10/10

Whoops! Almost a month after finishing and I just realized I didn't review this game!

Honestly, I think so far this has been my least favorite. Still a solid 8/10 though. I can confidently say the gameplay is 10x more fun than 3, and I liked 3's gameplay! So anyone worried about doing basically no damage again, no worries there.

On the story....without spoilering it, throughout all four characters/parts I went something like this.

Part 1: "Wow, this is really interesting and fun!"
Part 2: "Wow, this is really interesting and fun!"
Part 3: "Wow! This is fantastic, if a little weirdly convoluted!"
Part 4: "?????????"

The last quarter of the game is not only rushed feeling but just kind of...nonsensical???? It's just asspull after asspull, it's like the Kiwami 2 ending on crack.

Yakuza 4, for me, was the intersection where RGG team tried to decide the route of modern RGG. It's the last game before modern RGG games that started from Y5 and had a lighter tone intended to prioritize entertainment for general audience. And I don't mean this the bad way! My first RGG games were Y0 and Y7 and while Y0 had a very good balance between entertainment and simply good design+writing (compared to Y7 obviously favoring entertainment), their priority on entertainment value can be seen - and it's also why I started trying their other installments even though I dislike Kiryu and think of their plots as macho telenovela: RGG games will ensure that I enjoy my time.

But this game was before they decided this direction. Y4 was confused, but also extremely ambitious. They're mostly dead promises since we already know what follows it, but I respect what they are and the ambitions the team seemed to have.

My early impression is that this is the first installment that I could feel it has a very specific intent in its direction. Camera angles and closeups, in both main story and substory cutscenes, are more thoughtfully employed. Little Asia's introduction through Tanimura is the best example of this: without any words, we already understand what the team wants us to understand about Little Asia as a place, as a community, and what it means to Tanimura.

And Whiskey & Rhapsody, the only memorable non-battle RGG OST. In other installments, we usually get intense / thrilling OST that implies we have to hurry after a certain plot important part. In Y4, we get Whiskey & Rhapsody: a slow jazz that starts with reversed record and generally very unsettling vibe, with a raining Kamurocho. Sans Saejima, the other main characters are used to Kamurocho; it's basically their homes. We, the players, are used to Kamurocho too. The sight of raining Kamurocho, however, is a strange new one. The sight of raining Kamurocho AND reversing record as an OST? It's like the city we always know is suddenly strange, foreign, and might harm us. The beat is slow, as if there's nothing changing, yet we can't feel safe.

Also.... by this time I get that RGG writing is as subtle as a hammer, yet I feel like Y4 direction is successful in making it feel deeper than it is. Eye movements are employed in exchange of fewer words, with implications of non-said words behind those pauses. I'll say that I actually like how Arai and Kido are directed and written compared to how brain-over-brawn villains are treated in other installments, even though I know I'm reading what isn't there knowing what RGG writing range is lol

The direction feels like the team wanted to steer the series to more crime mystery slash noir feel. Well, I haven't played Y1-3 so I might be wrong and it might be more of the original route.

So, I accidentally wrote 2k words because I'm very normal about Y4 so I gotta put them here https://sakkamon.tumblr.com/post/770554725245566976/yakuza-4-word-vomit-rejected-from-steam-because-i