Kazuma Kiryu, better known as the Dragon of Dojima, is back for one final adventure in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. Fans of the Yakuza series will rejoice as Kazuma returns to once more beat down his enemies in the fashion he knows best. Explore new landscapes such as Hiroshima and see the world of Yakuza 6: The Song of Life through Kazuma’s eyes with a new first-person exploration mode. Even if you’re a newcomer to the Yakuza series, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life will still be an amazing action adventure title worth entering. Those who want to see Kazuma’s last tale will no doubt want to enter the fray once again in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life.

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life adheres to many of the series staples fans have come to know and love. Explore the world of Kamurocho as well as other locations and take down enemies as the brawler Kazuma Kiryu. With a ton of new improvements such as an updated level progression system, non-stop battles that don’t need loading and a brand-new drama filled story, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life feels different in more ways than ever before. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is full of new things to experience that the first question you’ll ask is this; What do I want to do first in this brand-new Yakuza title!?

After the events of Yakuza 5, Kazuma Kiryu has found himself once more having to go to jail to keep his family safe from harm. However, while Kazuma lives behind bars, the world he’s come to know once more begins to change…and not in a good way. Haruka Sawamura—Kazuma’s adopted daughter—has gone missing for the last several years he’s been away and thus, he finds himself having to once more journey into the land of Kamurocho. Though just like everything else, Kamurocho is changing thanks to a power struggle between the Yakuza and Chinese Triad making this land even more chaotic than in the past. Kazuma’s journey to find Haruko will lead through a dark path of deception, betrayal and violence which will test Kazuma in ways like never before. Can Kazuma reunite his family and finally find some respite in his life?

In 2005—2006 in the west—Yakuza was released on the PS2 and became a well-known franchise that has stood the test of time. With Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, this has been dubbed as Kazuma Kiryu’s final story in this beloved franchise and many have been left wondering this; How does the final game live up to the past titles? Well folks, we will end your wonder as we have entered Kazuma’s final story and have some experiences to share with you all. Welcome to our review of Yakuza 6: The Song of Life!

Now we’re going to assume many of you are returning fans of the Yakuza series, but in case you aren’t, we’ll briefly explain what Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is all about. Players take control of ex-Yakuza Kazuma Kiryu—who has been a staple of the series—as they kick butt, play mini games and dive into a dark and dramatic tale. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life adheres to many of the original themes such as fighting thugs and Yakuza goons randomly as well as exploring various landscapes to play mini games and advance the story. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life changes little with the base mechanics seen in previous alliterations of the series. However, while some of the original gameplay mechanics return, some have changed and not all are for the better.

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life’s biggest change from the last two Yakuza games—Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami—is that the fighting system has been altered to be similar to the original Yakuza games. Rather than have players utilize 4 styles, players can now only use a solitary one with upgrades as they progress through Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. This doesn’t mean the fighting in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is bad, far from it as it’s still extremely fun to beat up an enemy with a bike or a pair of chopsticks. Yet, the lack of styles makes the combat in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life feel a bit stiff and outdated which is a shame. Luckily though, this is the only really odd change about Yakuza 6: The Song of Life as everything else has been revamped in many ways.

Exploring around Kamurocho and other cities such as Hiroshima, has been improved in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. Players can now see the world in first-person and can even fight baddies in a more fluid manner than past Yakuza games. There are no loading screens for fights or even closed areas to fight in. Players can literally run into buildings to fight enemies and that leads to some rather ridiculous combat opportunities such as putting a dude’s head into a microwave. Just be aware that fighting in restaurants might cause you to be kicked out for a bit. Though, NPCs have short memories and will allow you to return after a bit of time has passed.

Mini-games also return in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life with a lot of rather silly games to enjoy. We literally couldn’t stop laughing playing the cam-girl mini-game as Kazuma smiled typing and seeing real girls strip. The new gym system was also a cool series of mini-games that gave us a slew of experience points for various areas to develop Kazuma and make him strong as nails. The cat petting mini-games and a new Clan Creator game where Kazuma leads fighters to do battle in a strategy like system weren’t as fun and honestly felt unnecessary. Also, the fact that we could play Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life made us smile something fierce.

The final change to Yakuza 6: The Song of Life gameplay mechanics comes in the form of the leveling system. Players will find leveling easier than ever before as almost everything in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life offers up experience points that can be allocated to various sections of Kazuma’s character. For example, eating some meals offers attack points and even defense points aside from just healing Kazuma after a rough few battles. Even the most trivial mini-games also offer up points to be used and that makes leveling Kazuma up rather fast versus the other Yakuza games. That’s why if you want to truly experience a tougher main game for Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, we do recommend putting the game on hard mode. Now finally, let us talk about the graphics and story for Yakuza 6: The Song of Life.

Graphically, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life looks—at times—incredibly solid with stronger facial features for characters and a lot of detail in environmental areas. Though equally, some of the graphics for Yakuza 6: The Song of Life look okay at best and it shows that Yakuza 6: The Song of Life’s graphic engine is finally showing some age. Though one thing that hasn’t change in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is that we are presented with a story that is wonderfully executed and truly deep. The acting in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is on point as usual and we even see Beat Takeshi—known from numerous movies like Battle Royale—making an appearance in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. This is the last tale for Kazuma and thankfully, it’s an excellent one in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life.

The Yakuza series has been around since the early days of the PS2 and with Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, the story of Kazuma Kiryu ends on a very solid note. While some things for Yakuza 6: The Song of Life feel like a step in the wrong direction—such as the fighting system and the strange Clan Creator—most of Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is just as perfect as it’s always been. The more fluid combat and the easier level system as well as the adventure components have been revamped and improved which made adventuring and getting into random fights in Kamurocho better than ever before. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life feels like the best way to end a tale that has been told for 12 years now. We still have more to do in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life such as substories and little hidden areas, but that won’t stop us from saying this; If you consider yourself a Yakuza fan and want to experience one of the better titles of the series, then you need to buy Yakuza 6: The Song of Life when you can. We will miss Kazuma’s story but equally, we wonder what Sega will do to keep the Yakuza series alive in the future.

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life isn’t perfect but that doesn’t mean this isn’t one hell of a game. Kazuma’s story has always been of the best things about the Yakuza franchise and that doesn’t change with Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. If you were on the fence about picking up Yakuza 6: The Song of Life for whatever reasons, we hope our review has changed your mind as we loved this title and think fans and even newcomers will too. Are you thinking of picking up Yakuza 6: The Song of Life? Let us know as always in the comments down below! For all your game reviews, news and article needs, be sure to keep stuck to our beautiful hive here at Honey’s Anime.