Yakuza 5 Is A Huge Clusterfuck And It’s Alright
In many ways, Y5 feels like more of Y4. Another game with multiple player characters divided into parts, another sprawling conspiracy aiming to take down the Tojo Clan, another journey from disparate locations to Kamurocho, another situation where Daigo Dojima doesn’t appear for hours.
I liked Y4, so I don’t mind this too much, but it would be a disservice to dilute everything about this game down to that.
The Yakuza 5
There are 5 playable characters in Yakuza 5, and 5 segments the story is divided into. These don’t match up one to one, though — unlike Y4, which essentially treated Kiryu’s part as the finale, this one has a dedicated finale segment to bring everything together. And in regards to the other four, Haruka and Akiyama share a segment of the story.
Still, even with that, this is a massive game. It pretty handily has the longest main story of any of the games thus far. Tackling everything about this as thoroughly as possible is a daunting task, so I won’t really worry about that. I’ll just touch on whatever I find interesting.
Why Kiryu The Bus Driver
It’s pretty clear comparing Y4 and Y5 how much more they cared about Kiryu’s section. Rather than thrusting him into the plot set up by everyone else, he receives the beginning of this game, a more slow and methodical segment which places him in a new environment resulting from his own self-sacrificial tendencies and fears as a parent.
Unfortunately, this premise very much peaks early, as past establishing why Kiryu is here at all, it feels pretty standardly like Another Yakuza Plotline.
He can’t hide from the limelight he fled for the sake of his loved ones because he is destined for relevance. Sad.
Haruka’s Bizarre Adventure
The reason Kiryu skips town and changes his name is for the sake of his adopted daughter’s ability to be a public figure in her music career without being burdened by his criminal past. A lesser game might make this a background element to Kiryu’s route and nothing else. But Yakuza 5 understands this is the most important thing ever.
Haruka’s part is just good, but I can’t pretend my opinion isn’t elevated by how funny it is. This 3d beat-em-up action game suddenly forces you to play several hours of rhythm-based idol dancing gameplay. I can imagine many people being extremely upset about this.
Haruka is a likable underdog protagonist, and through her we experience the untold horrors of living life as a woman and having your humanity degraded.
…Okay, not reeeeally. The story isn’t as critical of the idol industry as I’d like, but it at least touches on many of the key aspects that cause it to be so problematic, and that’s enough for me to be willing to be charitable to it. Haruka’s mentor of sorts, Park, is a contender for the best new character introduced by Y5, being a jaded bitter woman who has been taken for a ride by that entertainment industry. You mustn’t come off as too rude, or too nice, or too foreign. You need to spend every moment maximizing the amount of work you get done all while coming across as though it’s effortless. You can’t seem unattainable and you can’t get too close to anyone. You need to appear as a paragon of idealized femininity, and yet god forbid you ever have sex. And even though you can’t have sex, fans will frequently allude to the concept directly to your face, even if you’re underage, and you have to grin and bear it. Complete strangers are allowed all leeway. While those closest to you as a person must be cut off entirely for the slightest worry about public relations.
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Haruka doesn’t have as interesting reactions to all of this as I’d like, but I think there’s definitely a lot to say about the weird “arc” she has, and the way both Park and The Idol Industry act as a metaphorical mother for Haruka that receives custody of her in the divorce leaving her father Kiryu and metaphorical father The Yakuza Games alone.
Oh, and Akiyama’s here too. That literally kind of is his entire role, he’s just… an accessory to Haruka’s story. Which is fine. You gotta have the more traditional series gameplay come back at some point so fans don’t get too antsy, and Akiyama’s attitude is much more enjoyable when it’s not forced to carry an entire plot alone.
Good story!
The Other Two
Saejima’s segment feels incredibly boring and slow paced while not revealing that much about him as a character, but there’s certainly subtext to read into and the minor characters are alright.
Tatsuo Shinada, the new character, is a former baseball player whose route is largely about investigating and uncovering the specifics of a baseball scandal. This sounds boring but is actually amazing. It’s easily the most exciting moment-to-moment part. The way it’s integrated into the finale leaves a little to be desired, but Shinada’s connection to the main plot results in something very funny and interesting I won’t spoil, so it’s all good.
He writes SEX JOURNALISM. He talks to a SEX WORKER. Woah.
I know more about baseball now, thanks to this video game.
Put The Pieces Together
After like 5 times the plot of Yakuza 1, the game is tasked with wrapping everything up and providing closure to its central characters, and the success of this is… mixed.
I don’t even know if I’d say it collapses under its own weight so much as it forgets what it’s doing. The focus kind of falters and then centralizes around the Main Antagonist(*) — whose reveal and motives are genuinely well done. I could write a fair bit about the subtext and thematic existence of Yakuza 5’s Spoiler Character, he’s neat. But before and after this there’s just a lot of people fighting for very vaguely defined reasons, the protagonists all teaming up because it just seems like now’s the time to do that (this aspect is one of the few things I do just think Yakuza 4 did better), offscreen developments and reveals minimally elaborated on, people saying the word “Dream” ten million times, and at the end of it all the choice for the final foe (distinct from the Main Villain) is so ridiculous that it’s apparently a meme within the community as much as it is for me.
This game gets a rating of 5 out of some number. It might be the best of the Yakuza games thus far.
Ultimately, Yakuza 5 is a game about Haruka Sawamura. Well, okay, it’s at least as much about Kiryu, but that’s less funny to say. Akiyama plays a supporting role, Saejima and Shinada play supporting roles which actually get writing, but the connection between the father and daughter is the heart and core of this game, along with the concept of the word “dream”, and the conflict between these two. And I like that, so I like Yakuza 5. But I’m left wanting more, in all regards. Haruka’s depersonalization as an idol should only apply to her in-universe audience. I want to see more of how she feels, see her anger and regret. I want Kiryu’s story to be more than just three good scenes wedged within hours upon hours of Yakuza Mystery Fetch Quest. I want to understand. I want the guy who would obviously have made more sense as a final boss to have been it.
But I guess we can never be fully satisfied. Always needs to be something to wish, to yearn for. To sleep, perchance to yume. But these dreams don’t make what we already have any less valuable.
Good note to end on.
I think Haruka should’ve been gay for her rivals or something idk
