Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

*Quick warning to anyone ordering this standard edition, I received the "Essence of Art" edition instead. I'd usually knock off a star for this, but the game is a solid 5/5. To give a brief summary of my experience with the Yakuza series so far, I've played through Yakuza 0, Kiwami, and some of 3 & 5. I've quickly become a huge fan of the franchise and planned to go through each game consecutively from 0 all the way up to 6, but ultimately ended up deciding that I couldn't wait and went ahead and jumped to 6 early. I can easily say I already don't regret making this decision. Yakuza 6's story gripped me from the opening minutes. I believe it sets the stage and characters up well in some clever ways that should somewhat ease newcomers as well as provide reminders for series veterans. Despite this. I would strongly suggest to have some understanding/experience with previous games/stories/characters to better understand the context of where Yakuza 6 sets the stage for Kiryu's (main protagonist of the series) final story. To quickly summarize my initial thoughts: gameplay is more streamlined than ever and I mean this in the best way possible; it's quicker, smoother, and easily the most convenient it's ever been - examples include the ability to save anywhere/anytime, to be able to walk around in first-person view, and perhaps the most significant being that load times when entering/exiting buildings or battles has been removed (to name a few of the improvements). Participating in side activities such as eating/drinking, etc now more than ever have a direct effect on your EXP. The leveling up has also been simplified and feels more intuitive and responsive to your preferences - I'm enjoying this over the old circular-system in previous entries. I've heard a lot of criticism on the fact that Kiryu now has only one fighting style and that it is too simplistic, but I'm frankly not seeing this as an issue but rather as a breath of fresh air - sometimes simple equals better. In this case, I feel that it works to this games advantage. Though I'm only several hours in so far, I've already felt entirely hooked and intrigued by the story, characters, and setting. I find myself itching to jump back in and to continue to unravel the plot twists, mystery, and to discover what Kiryu's final entry will entail for his legacy. From what little I've played already, I am more than confident that it will truly be a proper send off. A huge thanks to SEGA for continuing to localize the Yakuza games for the West. I can only hope that there is much support for this latest entry so that we continue to have the privilege of playing future main line and spin-offs in such a fantastic franchise of wholly unique and special games. [Update] I just wanted to add that I have, since originally writing this review, completed the game. I've unlocked about 60% of the trophies as well and played a significant handful of sub-missions and explored a lot of the mini-games, etc. Additionally, (and I should add very obviously) I've now experienced the entirety of the story including all of the plot twists and turns, characters, settings, and boss fights. To put it as succinctly as possible, my overall review remains the same as before. In other words, having now finished my time with Yakuza 6, as opposed to originally only experiencing several hours, I can easily say that Yakuza 6 still remains quite possibly my favorite Yakuza game. To add to this, Yakuza 6 is also now in my top 25 favorite games of all time. Throughout 6, you will explore both Kamurocho and Onimichi - the former of which has been a constant setting throughout the entire series and the latter of which is a new, suburban fishing town. The level of detail in these two locations in addition to the ability to travel around in first person mode places the player at a new level of immersion. The overarching story is gripping and kept me intrigued throughout. The majority of sub-missions that I experienced ranged from the typical heartwarming fare to that of being ridiculously silly/quirky (as is expected from the Yakuza series). I continually felt rewarded by my exploration both by finding new sub-missions and by gaining EXP which allowed me to near-constantly level up Kiryu's stats the way that I wanted. Almost all of the characters you meet throughout the game get a good amount of screen time - while some bosses/villains seemed a little underdeveloped/underwhelming by the end of the game, most of Kiryu's allies had grown on me significantly. Personally, I believe Yakuza 6 is an excellent send-off for the series long-time protagonist, Kiryu Kazuma and fit his character well. While a lot of fans seem to be divided on the ending, I think that SEGA did his character justice. Okay. I'm done now. Hope my ranting helped in some way!