Look. I tried to find PS3 Yakuza titles but I all I got was Dead Souls and I'm not getting that until I can bring Baby Girl to karaoke. Dad took me to the new mall that opened and in there was a Playstation store whaaaaa so I went in to have a look. I found Judge Eyes sold at over 200 bucks, not gonna buy that even if I really wanted it. Then there was Yakuza 6, sitting on the shelf with a 159 price tag... Yeah I caved.
Y6 marks the end of Kiryu's saga. About time! The man could only go to prison so many times! The team is out of stories to tell, so it's a fitting send-off for the big guy. Picking up where Y5 ended, Baby Girl (Haruka) shocked the entertainment world with her sudden retirement by announcing her relationship with ex-yakuza Kiryu. Kiryu and Majima go to prison while Saejima is brought back to prison (there's a subtle difference). Haruka retuns to the Okinawa orphanage, but left soon after due to potential harassment from the paparazzi. Kiryu gets out of prison to find that Haruka is not in Okinawa but instead fell victim to a hit-and-run in Kamurocho??? And she has a son now????
When it's the last entry of a saga you know it will be a culmination of all the previous plot points plus a test of memory and knowledge. Three years in prison really changed a lot of things. First, there was a huge fire in Kamurocho a year ago. Then Daigo got arrested and thrown into jail because of said fire, now an old dude Sugai is in charge with Someya as helper. The Tojo Clan is at war with the Chinese Saio Triad. Akiyama closed down his business and is hunted by the triad. Korean mafia Jingweon is back! Omi Alliance is restless (actually they're not really involved). Mystery in Hiroshima where the Yomei Alliance is based. Convoluted plots!
With Date's help Kiryu traced Haruka's footsteps back to Onomichi, a small port town in Hiroshima famous for its shipbuilding business in the 1950s. He brings Haruka's son Haruto along in hopes of solving the mystery of the father. He meets Kiyomi, the beautiful mama of a local snack bar. She helps Kiryu out on multiple occasions while he's out asking about Haruka. Unfortunately for Kiryu, the friendliness of Kiyomi towards him invites the unwanted attention of local yakuza Nagumo, captain of the Hirose family (cue dramatic don-don character title card) who has a crush on Kiyomi and aint going to let Kiryu take all the ladies! Date has warned Kiryu about the Yomei Alliance in Hiroshima, and Nagumo being part of the alliance, Kiryu tries to stay out of their business. But let's be honest, this is Kiryu we're talking about, he's too nice for his own good! He saves Nagumo from higher-up Yomei person Masuzoe and just like that he became his aniki, and the aniki of every Hirose subordinate.
Now that he's on good terms with Nagumo, he asks if they've seen Haruka before. The Hirose family men deny it... suspiciously. Kiryu's not stupid so he catches on, but he decides that it's better for them to willingly confess. Sure enough that very night, Nagumo approaches Kiryu and reveals the truth. Thing is, when they see it's Haruka he's asking about, they put two and two together (expect for Matsunaga cause he's kinna dumb) and realize that oh shit this is Haruka's beloved guardian and panicked. Haruka came to Onimichi three years ago. Everyone in town loved her and figured that she's here to avoid the paparazzi so they never talked about her past or even now, revealed that she was in town at all. Then a year ago she vanished. Seeing that Haruto is her son, it probably has to do with her pregnancy. Kiyomi comes clean and tells Kiryu everything she knows. Suddenly, Someya approaches! He's married to Kiyomi?! Wow much revelation!
So Kiryu, Kiyomi and Hirose family men gather around to discuss who might be the father. Kiyomi has a guess and it's an ex-Hirose family man named Tatsugawa. Everyone in the room looks puzzled that Haruka would choose a guy like him. He's currently in Kamurocho working as a host. It's a good enough lead so Nagumo and one of the young'uns, Yuta volunteer to go back to Tokyo with Kiryu. They're going to beat the hell outta Tatsugawa! They visit Stardust only to be kicked out by Korean mafia. Yuya comes along and explains that due to all the shit that's happening for the past three years the host club has been barely scraping by. In the end the Jingweon mafia bought Stardust along with some other properties in the area. The current leader of Jingweon is Han Joon-Gi, the korean Virgil from DMC. He challenges Kiryu to a fist right not unlike the one in Y2. Of course Kiryu wins and he gets the info he wants plus some extra, but Joon-Gi isn't as pleased as you would expect...
Kiryu and co. rush to Tatsugawa's place only to find his corpse plus another in the apartment. And then they get a call that the jovial Hirose patriarch has run off with Haruto?! The three of them rush back to Onomichi and everybody from Yomei to Saio to Jingweon wants their hands on the baby for no apparent reason??? Kiryu and the Hirose family men head to the shrine where the old man is chilling with Haruto. There, many truths are revealed... Haruto's father? Yuta. Masuzoe and Tatsugawa? Saio spies. Haruto's value? Related to Yuta's true identity...
Ok shit is starting to get real complicated and confusing, so here's the gist of everything:
- Yomei = Iwami shipbuilding company
- Yomei has a big ass secret in Onomichi
- Saio knows the secret, threatens Yomei
- Saio sends Heihaizi (黑孩子) to Japan through Yomei (essentially human laundering)
- Heihaizi = undocumented children from China due to its one-child policy
- Sugai from Tojo works with Iwami, starts fire in Kamurocho
- Saio moves into Kamurocho after the fire, stages fake war with Tojo
- Somehow the fake war is now real. Good job guys
- Saio heir dies, killed by Yomei, framed on Tojo
- Daigo takes the fall, now out of yakuza business
- Jingweon receives money from Yomei, which is why they can buy all kinds of shit (including Stardust)
- I totally forgot how Jingweon fits into the picture but anyways
- One of the Heihaizi sent to Japan is Saio's second heir, Yuta
- Haruto is hunted because he's Yuta's son, can be used against Saio
- Haruto supposed to be kidnapped by Tatsugawa and Jingweon
- Haruka escaped with Haruto so Tatsugawa did a hit-and-run
- Big ass secret in Onomichi is supposed to be secret so Yomei sends assassin to kill off anyone who knows, including their own peeps
- What's the secret? Iwami be building battleships after WW2 when they aren't supposed to
- Who gave Iwami the funds to build the ship? Politician named Daidoji
- Daidoji wants the ship gone. Iwami be like 'cool story bro imma use this to threaten you when I need to so I'm keeping it'
- I finished the story in 22 hours and I can't recall the deets
Anyway tl;dr, Yomei/Iwami is the puppetmaster, directing the Tojo, Saio and Jingweon around. Joon-Gi is shot; Hirose is the assassin and he dies; Someya performs seppuku for Kiyomi (no guts were spilled); Haruka and Haruto are taken as hostages, Sugai kills himself because he's a coward and Iwami (Yomei chairman's son) is all talk. He gets pummeled senseless by Kiryu, but not before Sugai puts two bullets into the big guy, one into his gut and another in his thigh. Kiryu collapses. He's dying, but he's satisfied.
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| Karaoke! The best minigame! |
Hooooo this is a messy ending for me! Tears everywhere, snot in my shirt... the only other time this happens is in Y1 during Nishiki's boss battle. This game reverts back to the single playable character format, but it's fitting as a send-off for a legend. It's a bit weird that the classic characters are all out of commission (Majima, Saejima, Daigo and Akiyama, even Haruka) because it doesn't feel much like a proper send-off when your old friends are not there with you. But I guess, it has to be like that, because Kiryu is gone, not dead. It's not even a twist! This is Kiryu we're talking about, he can wipe out whole clans with only his fists and we're supposed to believe a bullet to the gut can kill him? Hell naw!
Gameplay: Haha it's a Yakuza game, the only series I own in a genre that isn't a JRPG. With no comparisons, the scores I can give are all 8-10. For the RGG Team's new Dragon Engine, I give it an 8. The battles are good, I had so much fun throwing and swinging enemies about, the improved heat actions are surprisingly fun to execute (who doesn't like QTEs mixed with button mashing) and I am now known as the Dragon of Using Too Many Objects in a Fight. With the new engine all bosses now have only one large health bar instead of multiple like previous games. I like my multi-coloured, multi-barred bosses, but eh. Single bar bosses are alright I guess. Since I haven't got myself Kiwami 2 yet, the clan creator minigame is also in Y6! It's your typical mobile game-esque err whatsit called?? Where you deploy your minions to beat the opposing faction. While Kiryu can't jump out of windows like in Judge Eyes, he can enter buildings and climb ladders now, and also jump off the roof of the batting center. I love exploring the interiors of buildings and destroying furniture by running into them. I can take pictures with the smartphone/menu so catch me snapping the streets of Kamurocho for background references. Sadly the Champion District and anywhere close to Kamurocho Hills are blocked off so we don't get to go down to Purgatory (if it's even still a thing). Karaoke is a little boring without Baby Girl, but I can manage. There's always the hostess clubs and live chats, fishing minigames, the SEGA arcade, and uh, darts.
Story: A 6. Like I said before, most of the classic characters, bar Akiyama and Date, are all out of commission. Even my favourite Baby Girl is not present for 80% of the game. I'm a little sad, but at least I don't have to worry about continuity issues from Y3-5. It's a brand new area with brand new characters! The story has been progressively more complicated as each title comes out, but oh boy I didn't think it would be this complicated in Y6. First off, all the past organizations are back except the Omi, there are two new organizations introduced and we have confusing aliases and world history in the form of WW2???? The whole story is just me playing detective trying to figure out who did what and why. In the end, the story wraps up pretty nicely: the parallels to the very first game in the series is a great way to end the saga.
Soundtrack: Uuuuuooooooooooaaaaaaaaaa you don't know how I even feel about the soundtrack after Y0. Twin Dragons is still the superior track for my epic playlist, but this game has its own collection of adrenaline-inducing jams. An 8 maybe? The final boss themes always rock, but special mention goes to Han Joon-Gi's theme, Theory of Beauty, which by itself is a fucking bop. Apparently it's a remix of the Jingweon mafia theme from Y2, but I don't hear anything tbh.
I have to fight Joon-Gi three times over the course of the game, thank the lord his theme is actually good to mash buttons to...
And now I present to you... the final boss battle theme. It's not the most epic, but the melancholy electric guitar in the middle is what makes it so good. It makes you wanna cry and scream at Kiryu's shitty life and the legacy that broke him.
Overall rating: For Kiryu's send-off piece, I rate it an 8. Knowing that this is the end of Kiryu's saga, I can't help but feel melancholy. The extra points come from the brilliant parallels to the very first game, as well as the central theme of parent-child relationship.
Kiryu reflects on his role as Daigo's father figure in his letter, in that this mess is all due to the broken relationships between parent and child. The Saio has two sons, the elder one wants recognition while the younger is abandoned and resents his father; Iwami was never loved by his father and is eager to prove to him that he is very capable in yakuza business; Kiyomi left her daughter with Someya when she tried to escape the abusive relationship and regrets it everyday since; and then there's Kiryu, who pushed Daigo into yakuza business but was never there for him when he needed him. And Haruka, oh sweet Baby Girl... she was forced away from Kiryu so many times, by yakuza, the law, and the media, but each time he would always find a way back to her and the kids, but not this time.
This game is extremely cruel to both Kiryu and Haruka. When Hirose dies in Nagumo's arms, he admitted that he killed Nagumo and Mastunaga's fathers under Yomei chairman's orders. Nagumo and co. cannot bring themselves to hate Hirose because they thought of him as their father. This is not unlike what happened to Kiryu 11 years ago. In his final moments, Kazama reveals that his orphanage is actually for kids whose parents he killed, and Kiryu was one of them. Kiryu knows all too well what Nagumo is feeling. As for Haruka, she has to see a loved one die before her, twice. Yumi died taking the bullet for Haruka in Y1, just after the touching mother-daughter reunion. In Y6, she watches as her foster uncle/father dies protecting her future family, when she hasn't seen him in three years and just reunited a few hours ago. Baby Girl has shit coming for her since day one, she pulled through everything and this time is definitely no different. She will live, leaving Kiryu's legacy behind her.
Hoowee I'm still emotional about this game. I wasn't with Kiryu for very long. I'm considered a newcomer because I walked into the series with Y0, but I feel like I've loved Kiryu and Baby Girl forever since playing the original PS2 games. It's a little weird to see him go, since I haven't played the original PS3 games so I have no idea what other hardships he has been through, but I know he has been through a lot. I can't imagine what the series would be like without him, but I want to see what the new protagonist can bring to the table. So this is goodbye to a legendary dragon...
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"You can do it..."
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