Yakuza 6: The Song of Life was the conclusion of the Kiryu saga, and the last time the series used the Yakuza name in the West without using its Japanese name, Like a Dragon. It is also the last mainline game in the series to be an action role-playing game, with the series switching to turn-based role-playing game mechanics in succeeding entries. As a send off to both the character of Kazuma Kiryu and the game play of which the series has become known, it had large shoes to fill. It managed to do so, for the most part.
Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio released Yakuza 6 with only one protagonist. With Yakuza 4 containing four playable characters, Yakuza 5 including five, and even Yakuza 7 containing seven, it seemed odd that Yakuza 6 would only include Kiryu. However, the staff wanted to focus solely on Kiryu to give his current story some closure. Even with the lack of playable versions of the fan favorite characters that were playable in previous games such as Goro Majima, Taigo Saejima, and Shun Akiyama, the game still gave its lone protagonist a lot to do.
In Yakuza 6, Kiryu and his adopted daughter Haruka deal with the fallout caused by their actions in Yakuza 5. Kiryu discovers that Haruka was left injured and comotose by an unknown driver in a hit-and-run incident. On top of that, he discovers that Haruka had been protecting an infant during the attack. The infant was unharmed, so Kiryu acts as a grandfather as he protects the child and discovers who attacked his daughter by traveling to the last known location of Haruka before she returned to Kamurocho, Onomichi Jingaicho in Hiroshima Prefecture.
During his search in Hiroshima, Kiryu befriends the members of a small yakuza family known led by Toru Hirose. The new characters shine as they are all memorable, especially Hirose himself, who is portrayed fantastically by Takeshi Kitano, the star of the highly influential game show, Takeshi's Castle. The success of Takeshi's Castle led to shows such as Sasuke, also known as Ninja Warrior, and American shows such as Wipeout. Takeshi played a comedic role in his eponymous series, and while Hirose had many comedic moments, the dramatic moments are where his character really shined.
In addition to the main story, it still includes the often hilarious subquests for which the series has become known. It includes all of the expected minigames, from the playable classic Sega arcade games, to Japanese and Western gambling games.
When I was reviewing the Yakuza series, I deliberately skipped over this game because Kiryu had already returned in Yakuza: Like a Dragon at that point, so it was clear his story wasn't over after all. I wanted to wait and see if this game still worked within the series without it being Kiryu's swansong. Now that Kiryu has returned to the series proper in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the question of whether the story of this game still works in the overall series arc can finally be answered.
Surprisingly, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name actually made a very strong case for Kiryu's return while actually giving the ending to Yakuza 6 some contextualization while humanizing its protagonist. Kazuma Kiryu has always been depicted as stoic, often to superhuman levels. Pop culture's most popular stoic normal human displaying superhuman strength, Batman. doesn't even hold a candle to Kiryu.
However, Gaiden humanized Kiryu to a level the series had never shown before, and retroactively humanizes Kiryu in the ending of Yakuza 6, actually showing that Kiryu is not an infallible superhuman. This makes the growth of Kiryu from Yakuza 0 to Yakuza 6 work so much better. The ending of Yakuza 6 was controversial when it first released, and Kiryu's return is not universally welcomed, but the story of Yakuza 6 definitely now makes a lot more sense from a story perspective.
Yakuza 6 is a fantastic game, and is a fitting farewell to the classic Yakuza series. It has all of the hallmarks of the series, and the Japanese-only voice over work once again shines. The music is also fantastic, from the game's soundtrack to the always-enjoyable karaoke songs. It isn't perfect, as the reduction of playable characters compared to the most recent games in the series can definitely be felt. However, it is still well worth playing for any Yakuza fan, especially those who enjoyed any of the games in the series before its restructuring as Like a Dragon.
Final verdict:
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