Yakuza Game Series Review: A Blend of Drama, Humor, and Deep Gameplay

Many who see Yakuza imagine a standard fighting game with cliché mafia stories. If that's what appeals to you, congratulations, you've found something more than just gold. But if that perception turned you away from the game, there's good news: you can give it another chance.

Of course, avoiding combat elements is impossible, but consider this: do you prefer a typical fighting game using fists or weapons, or one where you can fight using a shopping cart or a telephone pole? Furthermore, legend has it that the franchise's main character has never killed anyone.

"But it's still a fighting game." Not entirely. Have you ever seen a game that makes you sing karaoke with friends? Or manage your own brothel, styling staff in terms of clothing and makeup? Or, more simply, pull a plush toy out of a claw machine?

Yakuza is different. Believe me. You are likely familiar with Like a Dragon, the Ichiban series. But did you know this story didn't start there? The previous series is called Yakuza, and knowing it makes the gaming experience in Like a Dragon much richer. With nine main numbered games, the fear might arise: 'Where do I start?' Relax: the official entry point is Yakuza 0, set in 1988 and featuring Kiryu and Majima, one of the best games in the series. And this isn't just a fan opinion: Yakuza 0 received an 86 on OpenCritic, with 95% of critics recommending it.

Don't be intimidated by the large number of games; it is strongly recommended to play the older installments. If you like Like a Dragon, you will love discovering the origins of this franchise even more.

Yakuza possesses one of the most unique contrasts among games: at one moment, you are immersed in a completely absurd side story, investigating a used underwear sales scheme, participating in a 'who can withstand the spiciness longer' duel, or taking on the role of a film producer and clashing with a rival production gang. And the next moment, you are in a tense cutscene about betrayal, grief, or a decision that changes a character's life forever. And the most striking thing is that both sides are executed equally well.

If there is a side story that reflects how far this game has strayed from my expectations, it is 'How to Train Your Dominatrix.' You help a dominatrix who says she never knew how to say 'no' and agreed to work specifically to learn how to be tougher. For training, she conducts a role-playing session in a public park, where Kiryu plays the role of a subordinate, choosing the most humiliating phrases. This side mission made me laugh the most and realize that Yakuza goes completely beyond my expectations.

The game presents a living world where you can manage an entire property, managing employees and challenging rivals for territory. Or become a brothel owner, hiring hostesses, developing their skills, and competing with other clubs in the city.

There is full karaoke with choreography, dance battles, bowling, mahjong, golf, arcade machines with working games, and even a stock market investment mini-game (I certainly haven't mentioned everything, find out by playing).

And they are very well developed: some have dozens of hours of content comparable to a standalone game within the main one. Each mini-game has its own system, progression, and rewards—a depth usually only seen in single-genre games. You can spend hours managing your brothel and feel like you are achieving something. It is an entire city to explore between missions.

And this city is not fictional: Kamurocho is based on Kabukicho, Tokyo's most famous entertainment district, and appears in almost all the numbered games in the series. You will recognize every corner, every shop, and see how the district changes over the years within the story, almost like another character of the franchise.

Combat in Yakuza has RPG depth that many do not expect: a skill tree for unlocking, characteristic evolution, and various fighting styles that can be changed mid-fight. Some games, such as Yakuza 0 and Kiwami, offer up to four different styles for one character, each with its own way of playing. There is also a 'Heat' system that accumulates during battles and unleashes devastating special attacks.

It is in this serious combat that the series' most absurd creativity shines through: you can pick up almost any object from the street and use it as a weapon—a shopping cart, a telephone pole, a traffic cone, an umbrella, a bicycle, a road sign, a fire extinguisher, even a vending machine, each having unique special moves, some so specific they become comical amidst a serious fight.

Beneath all this hustle and farcical humor, Yakuza hides one of the best-written stories in gaming. Kiryu embodies the central themes of the series: loyalty, honor, and the burden of protecting those you love, even if it comes at a high cost. He is not a perfect hero, and the game is not afraid to show the consequences of his choices and the loss of people along his path.

The entire series revolves around family—not necessarily blood, but the one you choose and build throughout your life. Kiryu accepts, protects, and sacrifices for the people who cross his path, and it is this thread that gives emotional weight to a franchise that moments ago made you laugh at a ridiculous side story.

Villains also avoid the superficial cliché of the 'evil gangster for no reason.' Many of them have their own traumas and worldviews that are logical within their own system, even if you completely disagree with them. This turns confrontations into something more complex than just a hero versus villain struggle.

Yakuza makes you genuinely attach yourself to the characters, to the extent that every loss feels personal. Few series can balance absurd humor with such drama, and make both aspects work without feeling forced.

With Yakuza 6, the series runs on Dragon Engine, RGG Studio's proprietary engine, which significantly enhances the visual quality of the franchise: street signs have animation, light decorations look more realistic, and the team has started using better anti-aliasing techniques to give everything a smoother look.

The soundtrack also deserves a separate mention. In Yakuza 0, music director Hidenori Shoji worked with over a dozen composers and used different genres to emphasize the individuality of each protagonist: Kiryu's themes are clearer and more optimistic, reaching a tech trance style in the finale (please sing 'Bakamitai' in karaoke with Kiryu, this song is perfect), while Majima's themes explore darker sounds like drum'n'bass and dubstep. This turned out so successful that it became the series' calling card.

The entire franchise has sold over 27.7 million copies worldwide since 2005, in both physical and digital formats. The recognition is not new: the first game was highly praised in Japan for combining innovative gameplay and cinematic storytelling—a combination the series maintained and perfected over nearly 20 years.

The series has received numerous awards at various Japan Game Awards ceremonies, and Yakuza 5 and 6 achieved an almost perfect score of 39/40 from Famitsu magazine, the highest rating in this series. Metacritic scores range from 75 to 89 depending on the game, despite the history of delays between Japanese and Western releases, which for a long time kept the series 'hidden' from audiences outside Japan.

It was this situation that began to change rapidly with Yakuza 0: this game is considered the main reason the franchise resurfaced in the West, prompting Sega itself to reconsider its localization and simultaneous release strategy for subsequent games.

There are no games like Yakuza that could combine the best of all worlds. No matter what genre you prefer or what your age is, the narrative and gameplay can attract you.

You become too emotionally invested in the story being told, in the trials faced by the protagonists to achieve their goals; you suffer with them and rejoice in every achievement. Kiryu himself, being a stoic, carries a sensitivity rarely seen in mafia game heroes, and you can laugh at how seriously he takes comical situations.

And a special mention to Majima, the best character in this franchise, who evokes both tears and laughter throughout his journey. Our crazy favorite.

So, if I still haven't convinced you to play, perhaps you should try it and decide for yourself.

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olhardigital.com.brSeptember 15, 21:52

Five games set in Japan, spanning from the Sengoku era to contemporary Japan

The universe of Japanese video games covers a vast timeline, portraying the country in different historical phases. Some titles are set during centuries-old civil war periods, while others feature modern or post-war Japan.

Five games—Onimusha, Silent Hill f, Yakuza, Persona 5 Royal, and Forza Horizon 6—have been selected to illustrate rich Japanese history.

The Era: Sengoku Period

The Sengoku period, known as the "Warring States," occurred in Japan approximately between 1467 and 1615. During that time, there was no centralized power; numerous feudal lords, called daimyō, competed for territories, and the Ashikaga shogunate held only nominal existence for decades.

A crucial event in this scenario was the Battle of Okehazama in 1560. Oda Nobunaga managed to surprise Imagawa Yoshimoto's army, which counted around 25,000 soldiers and was heading towards Kyoto, using only 2 to 3 thousand men. This happened during a storm, taking advantage of the fact that part of the enemy troop was unarmored due to the heat. Yoshimoto died in combat, the Imagawa clan was nearly annihilated, and Nobunaga became an unforgettable figure, later allied by Tokugawa Ieyasu. This episode marked the beginning of a rise to power that would culminate in the unification of Japan decades later.

Onimusha: Warlords

The first game in the franchise, Onimusha: Warlords (Capcom, 2001), begins in this historical context. The main character, Samanosuke Akechi, witnesses Nobunaga's victory at Okehazama. A year later, he receives a plea from his cousin, Princess Yuki, and sets out to rescue her from Genma demons who kidnapped her servants. However, he discovers that Nobunaga was resurrected by the demons to become the narrative's antagonist. Thus, the game uses Okehazama as a historical basis, building dark fantasy upon it. While the civil war and political instability are faithful to the period, elements like the cursed gauntlet and demon Nobunaga are fictional.

It is worth mentioning that the franchise has another work related to feudal Japan: Onimusha: Way of the Sword, scheduled for September 4, 2026. This title is set in a reimagined world close to the beginning of the Edo period and focuses on the samurai Miyamoto Musashi, one of the most famous warriors, who lived between 1584 and 1645. Musashi won 62 undefeated duels (the most famous against Sasaki Kojirō, on Ganryū Island, in 1612) and wrote the classic "Book of Five Rings" shortly before his death.

The Era: Post-War

Post-war Japan presented a great contrast: major metropolises were rapidly rebuilding and modernizing, while the rural interior maintained much older customs, such as the worship of local deities, shrine rituals, ghost and youkai legends, and ancestor veneration, which still dictated daily life.

This period was also marked by recent war traumas and strong conservative social pressure, especially on young women, who were expected to preserve family honor and fulfill pre-established roles, avoiding scandal at all costs.

Silent Hill f

Silent Hill f (Konami, 2025) marks the franchise's debut outside the typical American city, taking place entirely in Japan, in the fictional Ebisugaoka. This inland town is heavily inspired by Kanayama, Gero district, in Gifu Prefecture, a location the development team visited to gather architectural and environmental references.

The protagonist, Hinako, confronts supernatural terror originating from the tension of the era: the weight of tradition, the silence imposed by shame and family expectations. In this case, the historical validation lies more in the social atmosphere, although it is well-founded in the decade in which the plot unfolds.

The Era: Asset Bubble

Between 1986 and the early 1990s, Japan experienced the so-called asset price bubble, where the value of real estate and stocks rose to unrealistic levels, driven by speculation and abundant credit. It reached the point where it was claimed that the land of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo was theoretically worth more than the entire state of California.

When this bubble burst in the early 1990s, the country plunged into the so-called "lost decade." It is in this scenario that Japanese organized crime, the yakuza, historically operates in nightlife areas, such as Kabukicho in Tokyo.

Yakuza

Yakuza (Sega, 2005), whose current name is Like a Dragon, is predominantly set in 2005 (with a prologue in 1995) in the fictional neighborhood of Kamurocho, which is almost a replica of Kabukicho. The protagonist, Kazuma Kiryu, a recently released yakuza member after taking responsibility for a crime he did not commit, finds himself involved in the search for 10 billion yen missing from his own clan's vault. Kamurocho reproduces with remarkable detail the real daily life of a Japanese nightlife district, including convenience stores and arcades, despite the plot being fictional.

Other Titles in the Series

Since the Yakuza series has more than a dozen games, each set in a distinct era, a brief summary is warranted: the sequence progresses chronologically with Kazuma Kiryu up to Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (2016), when leadership passes to Ichiban Kasuga in Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2020, set around 2019) and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (2024, approaching contemporary Japan). The franchise has also explored 19th-century Japan in a spin-off set at the end of the shogunate.

The Most Popular Title in the Franchise

Although the first game serves as a historical starting point, the most popular and recommended title for beginners is Yakuza 0 (2015). This game is set in 1988, at the height of the economic bubble mentioned earlier. Its plot centers on a dispute over a small empty plot of land in Tokyo, reflecting the type of real estate speculation that characterized that era. It is considered the best-selling and highest-rated title in the series, with over 2 million copies sold, and is often suggested to those who have never played Yakuza.

The Era: Contemporary

In this case, it is not a specific historical event, but rather contemporary Japan. Specifically, it addresses the urban environment of Tokyo and Japanese school routine, including social pressure on adolescents and widespread distrust of corrupt authorities, a topic quite current in Japanese society.

Persona 5 Royal

Persona 5 Royal (Atlus) officially sets the plot year as a vague "20XX," but its internal calendar—an academic year from April to March—exactly corresponds to 2016, the release year of the original Persona 5. The protagonist moves to Tokyo and attends the fictional Shujin Academy while leading the Phantom Thieves, a group that uses supernatural powers to expose the corruption of adults around them. Neighborhoods like Shibuya and Akihabara are recreated with high fidelity, representing Japan at the time of the game's release, without historical distance between fiction and reality.

The Current Era

This refers to today's Japan, literally. The game Forza Horizon 6, released in 2026, was announced as the first time the franchise will be set in the country. According to the development team, the intention is to capture contemporary Japan exactly as it is now: a place where traditional shrines coexist with mechanical workshops, and where neon-lit arcades demonstrate the coexistence of tradition and modernity on the same block.

Forza Horizon 6

Forza Horizon 6 (Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios) is an open-world racing game, which simplifies the "historical validation" compared to the other listed titles, given that the setting is the present. However, it concludes the list with a clear function: to demonstrate that after centuries of civil conflict, decades of post-war reconstruction, and the cycle of euphoria and recession of the economic bubble, contemporary Japan is a nation that harmonizes age-old tradition with cutting-edge technology.

Over the decades, Japan has demonstrated great capability in the gaming scene, even facing crises. Various Japanese franchises have conquered the world for generations. Increasingly, including in Brazil, people are interested in Japanese culture not only through games but also through anime, manga, and cultural events, showing that Japanese tradition persists alongside modernity.