NOTE – A copy of this game was provided to Gaming Instincts by Sega for review.The Yakuza series has been on the PlayStation since 2006 in America, with Japan getting the first releases one year earlier. Recently, Sega released the remasters of the first two games, called Kiwami, to revitalize the series with Kiwami 2 showing off the new Dragon Engine.
With the Kiwami games, Yakuza 0, and Yakuza 6: Song of Life being released only on the PS4 and PC, Yakuza 3, 4, and 5 were stuck on the PS3. To remedy this, Sega released the Yakuza Remastered Collection to bring Kiryu’s adventures onto the PS4 with enhanced graphics, framerate, and many more improvements that make these games stand the test of time.
The Yakuza series has the greatest writing in gaming storytelling. The collection takes it a step further by reviewing the original script and fixing any errors and mistranslations handled during the time of the previous releases.Starting with Yakuza 3, Kazama Kiryu decides to retire from the Tojo Clan and open an orphanage in Okinawa after entrusting leadership of the Dojima family to an ally, Daigo. Unfortunately, after a few months, Kiryu finds himself back into the gang life after discovering that Daigo got shot during a deal that may seal the fate of his new orphanage.Yakuza 3 has one of the slower starts of the three games, as before Kiryu must deal with the events in Kamurocho, players must deal with the antics of Morning Glory Orphanage in Okinawa. This means that Kiryu needs to handle matters in family sitcom style by talking to the kids and helping them take care of problems in a civil fashion.
Since the collection remastered games that were released on the PlayStation 3, the visual changes made to the remasters improved the games significantly. The games’ graphics, resolution, and framerate have all been enhanced from the PS3 editions. The games now run in 1080p at 60 FPS instead of the downscaled 720p at 30 FPS.These enhancements do the games justice, as combat, cutscenes, and the overall free roaming in the cities appear smooth. If players didn’t know better, they would think these games came out in 2019. There are bits of blurry textures in some areas, and blood can look odd during some fights, but the faces and overall sharpness of the environment overshadow those downsides. Additionally, in Yakuza 5, some fight initiations can greet players with a small bit of frame loss, but it doesn’t detract from the whole experience.
The three games follow the same formula that has served the entire series. Players get to watch the story, roam around wherever they want, get distracted by substories, minigames, or fights, then move on to the main plot.
The music in the Yakuza games are full of energy, often working as fight themes against random goons and memorable boss battles. Yakuza 3 has a variety of themes which differ from battle to battle. In Yakuza 4 and 5, the music is relegated to the player-character themes, meaning Kiryu has a different soundtrack than when Akiyama fights. Players may feel fights can get repetitive, as the songs in Yakuza 4 and 5 are the same outside of story missions, but the soundtrack is amazing overall.
The Yakuza series is full of enjoyable storytelling, side missions, minigames, and intense combat. Fans of the series should feel better knowing that the collection is remastered to better fit its brutal combat and thrilling story in 2020. The games have aged well considering they came out in the PS3 era, and the combat works as well as it does in Yakuza 0. While the games don’t use any enhancements that the Yakuza Kiwami games have with the Dragon Engine, they still are a blast.
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