PLAYING A Yakuza title is like entering some kind of ridiculous timewarp thanks to Sony’s dubious policy over its release date.
For some bizarre reason Japanese gamers were able to play the most recent installment in its Tokyo crime series over a year earlier than people in Europe.
It’s a delay I might understand if the time had been spent wisely, say actually finding some Western voice actors, but no instead all dialogue is in the original Japanese with only subtitles available.
Quite simply there is no difference between the titles so why wait until it’s a year old before releasing it. After all video game years are like dog years and an awful lot can happen in 12 months.
The actual game isn’t bad at all. It’s not as tight as others of the same genre but there’s still an intriguing plot and bundles of rough and ready action to sink your teeth into.
In fact this latest installment provides a departure from the norm for the series with the story being played out by four seperate characters.
It’s something that has mixed results and works very well on occasions but can also feel a little flat on others. You can see what they’re doing, trying to go with the vogue method of story telling where several strands all come together for a dramatic conclusion.
One main frustration for anyone who played the last Yakuza will be that the actual game mechanics have changed very little.
The combat feels identical, right down to the finishing moves your able to inflict on the raft of idiots that choose to pick a fight with you. In fact the action can feel repetetive too often and some of the cut scenes go on far too long.
What you’ve got is an accomplished title with a mass of side quests to complete if you’ve finished (or given up with) the main story line.
While it looks good, the city and character faces particularly, the animation is a little basic and ultimately it does feel like a 12 month old game.
Yakuza seems to have all the ingredients to be a superb game yet just falls flat in too many aspects, be it storyline, visuals or combat.
That’s fine if it’s not already 12 months old but waiting a year for a game which doesn’t live up to expectations is pretty frustrating.