Having recently beaten the Yakuza Remastered Collection, I felt a distinct lack of Kazuma Kiryu in my life. Failing to receive my daily dose of his profound wisdom left quite the hole that needed to be filled; with Judgment already crossed off my list, I turned to something else from the Yakuza franchise that many gamers slept on when it was first released in Europe back in 2012. That, of course, being the zombified spin-off, Yakuza: Dead Souls.
A “what if” scenario set taking place after the events of Yakuza 4, the story takes players back to the streets of Kamurocho, where they take control of familiar faces Akiyama, Majima, Kiryu and the returning antagonist from Yakuza 2, Ryuji Goda, to battle a curious case of the zombie apocalypse.
As per usual with both Yakuza and generic zombie-based narratives, the plot is a little hazy and kind of hard to follow if you’re looking for a clear-cut reason behind why the zombies exist and where they came from. In this case, former members of the Omi Alliance teamed up with a Western scientist named DD to plunge the beloved mafioso town into bloody chaos. It’s down to our four heroes to save the citizens of Kamurocho from being wiped out by the virus, as they slaughter the many mutations that are slowly breaching the quarantine zone.
The key feature that sets this game apart from the rest of the franchise is that it takes the attention away from scrappy street brawls and over to big juicy guns and explosions. The game’s director, Kazuki Hosokawa, dived right into experimenting with the ever-popular third-person shooter genre, giving the renowned fist-fighters another flavour with customised ballistics.
Each protagonist is given their own unique weapon for players to blast away zombies with: Akiyama favouring akimbo pistols, Majima dropping his signature knife for a shotgun, Goda with a literal hand-cannon (no seriously, his arm transforms into a gatling gun) and Kiryu with an overpowered sniper rifle. It breaks the game up quite nicely with different approaches to each act, but unfortunately also became one of the game’s biggest criticisms.
At times, the gunplay can come across a little clunky, with a poor camera and targeting system sometimes putting the player on the backfoot when fighting against an oncoming horde. Trying to maneuver while using your chosen weapon can be awkward and you often find yourself relying on the various handheld weapons scattered about the stages instead of exploiting the many guns and explosives the game intends for you to use. It’s a far cry from the smooth, hyper-combat system Yakuza fans have grown accustomed to.
Dead Souls mixes it up quite nicely by bringing in their own take on the Resident Evil style mutant, combining zombies together with various visions from your darkest, goriest nightmares. Each mutated zombie presents new challenges to the player, with some taking to the air and others being cased in a hardened shell. It keeps the combat from getting too repetitive, which is a challenge when relying on zombies to be your main enemies. They’re not only challenging, but they also help get the story back on track and make for some of the game’s most memorable moments.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Yakuza game if you weren’t able to take a break from massacring the undead to belt out some tunes in the karaoke bar. Players can indulge in all the usual wacky substories and activities that make up the majority of what makes the series so great. If you get a little bored of the story, you could always take Majima for a spot of golfing, or see how Goda handles himself in the Mahjong parlour — there are plenty of opportunities for a bit of fun on the side of your zombie killing.
It’s a real shame that most Yakuza fans have shied away from giving Dead Souls a go. Admittedly, it was a bit of a cash-grab around the peak of the zombie genre, with other hit series like Call of Duty and Red Dead Redemption’s Undead Nightmare DLC reaping the benefits, but it’s still a really fun addition to the Yakuza universe, giving fans an extra adventure with their favourite Uncle Kaz and pals. You might occasionally find the odd reference or two to the game’s events in some of the later releases – Zombie Majima popping up in Yakuza Kiwami’s Majima Everywhere mechanic, for example – but ultimately it kind of fell under the radar amidst average reviews.
This signalled the beginning of a slump period for the Yakuza franchise, making way for a brief hiatus from production before eventually finding newfound success with Yakuza 0, The Song of Life and the Kiwami editions of Yakuza 1 and 2. I for one hope we get to see Dead Souls finally make it onto screens once again with a remaster of its own — it’s definitely something worth checking out if you’re a fan of the franchise and are down for a little bit of blood and guts. It shares the same silliness that its predecessors do, and holds its own among the plethora of other games in the genre.
It might not be the easiest game to track down in stores, but if you’re able to get your hands on an EU copy of Dead Souls then it’s definitely a worthy time-sink, if only to listen to Kiryu’s words of soothing wisdom in these trying times.
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