Yakuza 6: The Song of Life Is The Beginning Of The End, And We’re Not Ready

If you’re anything like me, you probably cried a thousand tears about Yakuza 6 being delayed until April. It’s safe to say a fair portion of us in the bosom of Cultured Vultures have been chomping at the bit to get our hands on this game and after a careful karaoke contest, my velvety-sultry version of ‘24 Hour Cinderella’ had won me the right to preview the game with the demo SEGA were so kind to provide the loyal fans as an apology for the delay. It’s strange to hear that this could be the last Yakuza game, or at least the final chapter for Kazuma Kiryu, and if this demo has anything to go by, Yakuza 6 could be a long bittersweet goodbye indeed.

There’s not really much to write about in terms of storyline, other than this is a prologue to help set up the chess pieces for Yakuza 6. The prologue takes place immediately after the events of Yakuza 5 and works as a 30 to 45 minute long cutscene building on the events between Yakuza 5’s 2012 ending to Yakuza 6’s 2016 beginning. I’m not usually a huge fan of long cutscenes, but like all Yakuza games there was enough drama to keep me wanting to know more.

The presentation to this game looks gorgeous, so keeping yourself distracted with the beautiful graphics was a wonderful experience when watching these cutscenes. I won’t spoil much for you; the demo is free, so go to the PS Store and download it. If you’re worried you’re not going to understand much of it, SEGA has you covered with a few text based storyboards that covers all the backstories of each main franchise release.

The demo cuts off just after the beginning of chapter one which may irk some fans, but in all honesty it was SEGA’s intention for you to walk around the familiar streets of Kamurocho, whilst checking out its fighting mechanics and more streamlined bells and whistles. One of the better aspects I can immediately point out to you is that the levelling up mechanics are far more easier to access. Borrowing from the book of GTA V, everything is now a simple button press away from your smartphone. This includes accessing the save functions – because even the tutorial has pointed out that no one uses payphones these days. I’m not going to lie, a good 25 minutes of my playtime was spent replying back to the tutorial texts using various emoji stickers and seeing the replies they send back. The results are hilarious.

Your smartphone is also used to access your upgrades. Though most of its functions have been cordoned off until the game’s full release, you can peek at the long list of upgrades that will be provided, making one feel giddy over the new ways you can kick someone’s head in. There was one question I did ask myself though: if everything is done via the smartphone, will we ever see that guy in the clown makeup and funny wig you had to go to for stamina and weapon boosts for this installment of the game? Only time will tell. For now you can still put in a few experience points for your overall health and stamina in the demo and the best part is all of this will be carried over when the full game is released. For that reason alone, I immediately started picking fights.

In terms of the fighting mechanics, the Yakuza is comparable to games like Zelda or Mario. in the sense that fans are fully aware they’re playing the same game, but the developers always do just enough to make the franchise refreshing to play with each sequel. It’s safe to say from what I have played in the demo, SEGA has really thrown in everything and the kitchen sink on the fighting mechanics and it was a blast to play. The newest feature is the Fury Gauge. Fans familiar to the series will know that after building to a certain point of combat you can unleash a special move.

However, by pressing the R2 button you now have a fight style dedicated to unleashing over the top arcade havoc on your foes. This includes QTE’s that accelerates all the action to a faster pace compared to its predecessors. It took a little bit of getting used to, but it’s nothing a bit of practice can’t solve. It’s also a delight that we now have destructible environments added to the game. One of the most satisfying moments of the demo so far was sending one poor soul flying through a shop window. I wasn’t allowed back in the shop, but it was worth it.

There’s not really much else to talk about for now. It’s a shame there wasn’t much of anything else for you to try your hands at. So far we’ve found one side mission, a hilarious tale involving AI, but nothing else. In the true Yakuza fashion, the quest giver was found hiding in plain sight. However, there is still enough for fans to sink their teeth into and jump in and out of gameplay until its April release date. During that time, you can be rest assured that the gaming team at Cultured Vultures would have had our cage fighting tournament to see who is worthy of reviewing this title, where I shall release my ultimate ‘Trout of Tonbridge’ moveset. Whether it can defeat Ash’s “King of Scouse Style” is a different story.

Unless you were lucky enough to live in North America where the whole game was accidentally released, the rest of us will be waiting on bated breath to play the conclusion in the hopes we don’t go through too many boxes of tissues when we finally have to say goodbye to this current chapter of the franchise and The Dragon of Dojima himself. No, we’re not crying. Someone stop cutting those damn onions.