The Yakuza saga has come a long way in recent years, with games that have not even arrived in physical format beyond Japan. After losing hope in the West and bringing only English versions or a digital only title and released several years later as was Yakuza 5, This new era of the saga has finally turned the tables.
Yakuza 0, Kiwami and Kiwami 2 have been the effort on the part of RGG and Sega so that the saga also convinces in the West. After a won market such as the Japanese, Yakuza had the task of convincing the sales level out of there. The fact is that there were few fans who spoke wonders of these titles and very few were those who paid attention to them.
With Yakuza 0 it seems that little by little people were falling, something that accompanied the releases of Yakuza Kiwami and Kiwami 2, two remakes of the saga that served so that we could all start from 0 (never better) the saga and enjoy it with the Current graphics and mechanics. In between, the sixth installment of the saga was lost, which ended Kiryu's story and that some of us bought with the hope of playing after bringing the saga up to date.
We're all here
Now we can say that we will be able to bring the Yakuza saga up to date and have completed it, since The Yakuza Remastered Collection brings us the third, fourth and fifth installments with graphics at 1080p and 60fps that make the gameplay more spectacular than ever.
These 3 games are the ones that marked a paradigm shift in the saga. As you have already seen, Yakuza 1 and 2 share almost the same scenarios, with somewhat similar plots focused on the character of Kiryu as well as the Yakuza families.
Yakuza 3
From Yakuza 3 it was possible to change the style of the saga, going to focus on other characters and plots, which obviously revolve around Kazuma Kiryu. The fact is that this delivery takes us where Yakuza Kiwami 2 left him, with a Kiryu who finally abandons his life in the Yakuza and focuses on managing an orphanage next to his Haruka ward.
This delivery is a very important change both for the graphics, which are obviously worse than the recent remakes, as for the playable. We are facing a remaster, so what has been done in Yakuza 3 is to recover the original Japanese version because in which it was launched in the West, a multitude of content was cut as several mini-games or side missions, as well as simplified the plot. Obviously, we are facing its final version.
When using the original version of the game we will not find a gameplay as deep as in Yakuza 0, Kiwami or Kiwami 2, the skills improvements will be quite archaic and the fighting style will not be able to change. In addition, we will only have a playable character, Kazuma himself, although later this fact will be drastically changed.
In Yakuza 3 we will find a different story and very distanced from what has been seen so far in the saga. Many are the players who consider it the worst game in the saga (does not mean it is bad) and it is understandable to think after playing the first hours of the title. Caring for children or doing missions that have anything but rhythm mean certain low coming from the great Kiwami 2. The plot gets started but does not end up convincing, yes, it has the classic twists of Yakuza as well as its absurd but wonderful secondary.
Apart from all the main plot, which is possibly one of the shortest in the saga and does not take more than 15 hours, we have the aforementioned secondary and a multitude of mini-games, among which golf and fishing stand out as new The always grateful karaoke.
Yakuza 4
Yakuza 4 is still a more drastic change in the saga than the previous installment, mainly due to the fact that we have 4 playable characters before us, so the path marked by Yakuza 3 is followed and it seeks to deepen the characters and life that surrounds Kazuma Kiryu and not only see the story from his point of view.
The plot returns to the stories of money and family fights, which reminds us of a certain part of Yakuza 0, thanks to the fact that one of the characters is a usurer as Kiryu once was. This release releases new mini-games such as thermal baths, card games or pachinkos.
The fact of having 4 different characters allows us to have different fighting styles, something that is appreciated after the monotony of the third installment. Finally, in the graph we are almost facing the same result as with Yakuza 3, since they use the same engine. We can not talk about spectacular graphics or great textures, but as PS4 games do not clash too much. We also appreciate those 60fps that make combat more enjoyable.
Yakuza 5
Yakuza 5 is for many the best game in the saga, as well as one of the best games ever. The case with this delivery is that it did not arrive in physical format to the West, something that they have “solved” from Sega with a physical edition of this The Yakuza Remastered Collection that brings the game box for PS3, thus completing the shelves of all collectors .
If Yakuza 4 had 4 playable characters, Yakuza 5 had to bring 5, the largest number of characters to date and that expands everything seen so far at the level of differences in the fighting style or depth of the characters. The new graphic engine, which is an initial version of what we later saw in Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami makes it the game that benefits most from this edition of 3 remasters.
The plot is again focused on internal battles in the Tojo Clan as well as power struggles, due to different events that make stability wobble. Kiryu, as always, is involved in them. In addition to the 5 playable characters we also have 5 locations, being 3 of them completely new. Kamurocho and Sotenbori are joined by Nagasugai, Tsukimino and Kin’eicho.
This title is perhaps the longest and deepest of the entire saga, with a complicated plot, as well as a multitude of secondary activities whether they are missions or mini-games.
A fairly fair remaster, memorable games
The Yakuza Remastered Collection is an essential title that makes us enjoy 3 different games with each other and everything seen previously in the saga, each with a special proposal, ending in a Yakuza 5 that is perhaps one of the best titles in the saga. Yakuza fans can finally follow the saga without missing any main title, thus ending Yakuza 6: The Song of Life and looking forward to knowing how the future of this franchise will be with the total change that Yakuza: Like a Dragon will entail.
At last Yakuza fans have the entire saga in a single console accessible and adapted to current graphics. If someone had told us this 5 years ago surely we would not have believed it.
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