The most ambitious. The most explosive. The most ridiculous. The most experimental. The most content-rich. The most twists. The most… everything. Maybe a bit too much?

This released in a somewhat turbulent time for the series. At least, that’s what it looks like in retrospect.

The Yakuza series had received a few flops in the last few years. Both were spinoffs. One was a PSP exclusive that gained so little traction that over a decade later it still has not seen even an international release. The other was a zombie-horror third person shooter (if you can even call it that with its bizarre control scheme) that was so bad that it is the community’s favorite punching bag for memes to this day.

So, it was time to refocus.

Previously known as “New Entertainment R&D”, the studio took on the name “Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio”, named after their iconic series, Like a Dragon. No longer would they split their focus with Super Monkey Ball games. They could direct all of their effort towards sweaty, shirtless men punching each other while screaming about honor and brotherhood. At last.

To celebrate this, it was time for the biggest, most grand Yakuza game ever. It was time for a refresh of the series. RGG Studio considered it a “New Yakuza” or a “reboot” (without rebooting the story). This would be beyond a culmination of everything so far, it would boldly and firmly plant a foot in new territory. All other Yakuza games up to this point were developed in a single year window, which frankly seems insanely low to me today. This grand project was given two whole years—which still seems insanely low to me, but it was huge at the time. Additionally, the game engine was enhanced to the point that it was effectively a whole new engine. The story was also given new direction: a stronger focus on thematic foundations and cinematic storytelling (such as scenes of “what the villains are doing” without a protagonist being involved). It’s still undoubtedly a Yakuza story, but it’s clear that the writing process and direction was changed significantly.

It’s funny to see all of that looking back. I’m jumping ahead a little bit, but Yakuza 6 would go on to overhaul the game engine and gameplay again. It would also completely change storytelling patterns and tone of the series again. It would change the way content was designed again. The changes made by Yakuza 6 would stick around for a while. The engine created for it is still used in the most recent games almost a decade later.

Yakuza 5’s “reboot/New Yakuza/ultimate Yakuza experience” would last only for itself and Yakuza Zero¹, which was a much better implementation of the formula Yakuza 5 set up. For all its bluster, Yakuza 5 was less of a revolution in the series, and more of the first stepping stone on the turbulent path of experimentation the studio would take for a short time.

So, did it work? Was this really the best Yakuza game ever? Did the big swings turn into big hits? It’s… complicated.

The short answer is yes.

I like Yakuza Zero more, but I think this was the best at the time it released, though only barely above Yakuza 4. It’s a seriously mixed bag of a game. It has some of the highest highs the series had seen, but also some incredibly low lows. Some of those big swings turned into massive fumbles. It was too big, lumbering and clumsy, tripping over itself sometimes. It had a few too many twists, and tried to make a few too many characters important.

Still, I loved it.

I found myself sobbing near the end of the game. This story is truly touching. I can legitimately picture myself looking back at this game in the future as one of those pieces of media that inspires me to get through tough times. This ridiculous soap opera masquerading as a crime drama about sweaty, shirtless men taking any possible excuse to beat the shit out of each other—actually brought me to tears.

The Haruka sections were refreshing, peak gaming and peak fiction. The best stuff in the series so far. I unironically love that they said, “You know who else is just as vicious as the yakuza? The idol industry.” It works so well. Not just for this game, but for the series as a whole. Haruka is the first playable female character in the series, and she’s done so well. It’s shown time and time again that she is every bit as brave, determined, and dependable as the men of the series.

This game also deserves some credit for setting up Yakuza Zero to be such a wild success. All of the best parts of Yakuza 5 were used as foundations for Yakuza Zero. They found what worked, what didn’t, and perfected the formula. Even if Yakuza 5 didn’t revolutionize the series by leaving a mark on the future games, it revolutionized the series by causing the community to grow explosively thanks to the perfect prequel. Myself and many others never would have tried the series without it, and that massive success has allowed the series to bloom better than ever before. That, is a hell of a legacy.

The Review#↑

Visuals#↑

This was a significant step up from the previous entries. It still shares the old “look”, but it’s the absolute peak of what they were able to squeeze out of that old look. Textures and models are significantly better. There are more cinematic shots than ever.

I don’t have as much to say about this. The style hasn’t changed pretty much at all since Yakuza 4, it’s just been perfected. It’s pretty much exactly how Yakuza Zero looks.

What I was impressed by was that it continued the trend 4 started by making the game more cinematic than ever. I know that word is overused when describing games to the point that it has been reduced to buzzword nothingness. I just can’t think of a better word for it. It feels like this was directed like a TV Crime Drama. There are fewer and fewer of the cheaper style of cutscenes. The high-budget, cinematic scenes have even more camera angles per scene. More time is dedicated to pacing the scenes and letting tension linger when it needs to, without ever dragging out. There were multiple times that I was so engrossed in the story and it had been running for so long that I was interrupted by my controller automatically shutting off and the game pausing to warn me of that.

Yes, this is a game. It has gameplay. It’s also a full season of TV.

Audio#↑

This had by far the best soundtrack yet. I found it really hard to narrow a list down to a few tracks. If you want to, I highly recommend just finding a playlist with the whole soundtrack on it and seeing what sticks for you. These songs are what really stuck for me, after multiple rounds of narrowing things down:

This is one of the Random Battle Themes you can get. It’s an absolute banger every time it comes on. Unreasonably good for a throwaway combat theme. It’s chaotic. It’s a jam. It’s high energy. Everything you want for a chaotic street fight in which you’re grabbing anything not nailed down to beat the shit out of each other with, all while remaining as stylish as possible. They understood the assignment.

The Final Boss Theme is absolutely killer. As the name suggests, it’s a battle for dreams. It’s violent and aggressive, with rising tension, but it’s also hopeful and optimistic, and maybe a touch sad that it has to be this way? Just picture those floaty guitar riffs while two dudes hit a slow motion cross counter and then tumble away and spit blood on the ground with a look of determination. It’s that kind of song. It’s so fitting.

Another of my favorite Boss Themes comes up in a moment that mirrors the ending of Yakuza 4. Four warrior legends stand on top of a skyscraper and fight each other without holding back, out of respect. Trust me, the presentation is so bad-ass. This one is full of determination and fighting spirit, but it’s also beautiful. It’s got a high/rush feel to it, like “this is what we do this for”. Killer.

The Ending Theme will never fail to yank an emotional response out of me like it’s got hooks in my soul. It’s so full of hope and spirit. I love that it’s broken into multiple parts that start to align. It feels like it represents the story of the game itself beautifully. Each of their Dreams twist together into a touching story. It ends with an explosive finale that gives me chills.

Gameplay#↑

Gameplay is easily the best so far. They’ve really perfected this formula.

Something I noticed right away and I was very thankful for is that transitions into combat are now seamless. No longer is there a jarring load screen or cutscene between running around and being in combat. Combats just form up right in the street you’re running through. Enemies can also call for nearby backup or run away. This all leads to the combat experience feeling far more grounded in the world you spend the rest of your time in. It’s nice!

Much like Yakuza 4, Yakuza 5 has multiple playable characters that have different playstyles. Those styles are refined from their previous versions, and they have a new twist! Each character has some unique twist to their moveset. Kiryu can temporarily enter a state in which he is immune to damage, deals way more damage, and has a much faster moveset. Akiyama upgrades his technical moveset that’s good at juggling enemies with a series of special moves that literally air-juggle enemies like it’s a Devil May Cry game. Saejima can pick people up and use them as weapons. Shinada is just a regular dude, so he has an ungraceful tackle similar to the one some basic enemies use, but can be quite powerful when leveled up. The different playstyles were already fantastic for keeping gameplay fresh, but these unique additions make them even more fun and refreshing.

This game also had character select for some moments. This seems like a small thing, but it’s actually fantastic. Sometimes the choice was actually really hard. Like, which character has more poetic relevance right now? Which character’s moveset do I feel more like using right now? Do I want to precisely dismantle this place with Kiryu’s legendary moveset, or do I want to just go apeshit throwing people as Saejima? Even more fun, sometimes you’d have those protagonist vs protagonist fights, and you’d get to choose which character to play as. There’s so much to think about there, and it also means the powerscalers can finally shut up because the answer is “whoever the player is controlling”.

Shinada’s playstyle is unique to this game, and I love the details of it. So I’ll spend some more time talking about it. Shinada is an ex-professional baseball player. His moveset is all about his hand strength, raw athleticism, and batting. He’s not refined as a fighter, he’s just got crazy reflexes and coordination. His special move is a tackle that can shove people into walls or tumble through other enemies. His attacks all look like he is begging for a bat. Some of his swings look like he is literally performing a baseball swing, but with nothing in his hands. Some other strikes are wild, forceful swings, and others look like he is swinging his arms like they have weapons in them and then just hitting enemies with his fists instead. His grab attacks are fantastic. He can combo his finishers into grab attacks, which is almost always the best choice. Then, everything changes when he gets a weapon in his hands. Shinada is the best weapon user in the game, possibly in the series. When other characters hit a single time, Shinada lands 3-4 hits. With how powerful weapons are, that’s insane damage output. It’s also insanely expensive, because that drains weapon durability multiple times faster. Coincidentally, Shinada is always broke. This leads to picking up every random object you can, as anything is an advantage. His home city is perfect for this, with by far the most clutter available to be used for this purpose out of any city in the series.

My favorite part about Shinada’s gameplay is that baseball bats are occasionally scattered throughout all the clutter he could pick up. The first time I saw one, I thought this is perfect. Shinada can finally go all out with some crazy baseball bat swings. Other characters can use baseball bats to great effect, but Shinada must have some crazy unique abilities! If you pick up a bat as Shinada, he looks at it with pride, turns it over in his hands a few times and feels the balance of it. Then puts it back on the ground with a smile. Shinada respects baseball bats too much to use them as weapons. It’s such a thing he would do. It’s perfect.

Of course, I have to talk about the Haruka sections.

Haruka doesn’t fight with violence. She has several different rhythm games that she uses for street dance battles, battle-of-the-band concerts, solo concerts and more. The rhythm games aren’t flawless, but they’re better than most rhythm-games-embedded-in-another-game that I’ve seen. It’s also impressive that there are multiple of them for different circumstances. They all have different vibes, while maintaining similar mechanics. Street dance battles are more chaotic and feel more like keeping several plates spinning, with shorter song lengths and the ability to cut the fight short by being way better than your opponent. Concerts feel like more traditional rhythm games in which you chase a high score and/or go for a full combo. Concert contests feel like a competetive variant of the traditional rhythm game experience.

It’s also very cool how much main Yakuza mechanics are translated into rhythm game mechanics. For example, Yakuza combat has special moves called Heat Actions that consume a special meter that you build up during the fight. Haruka’s gameplay features similar special moves triggered in similar ways. In concerts, it’s like Rock Band’s Overdrive, but really special circumstances can lead to Haruka pulling out a quick-change outfit at just the right moment in a song, equivalent to the slowly-recharging ultimate abilities the combat characters have access to. In street dance battles, Haruka can activate special moves that affect the fight in different ways such as boosting her multiplier, healing her, doing direct damage to her opponent, and more. The rhythm games are all more advanced versions of the karaoke minigames that have been in the game since the start, which is a fun way to bridge things in-universe.

Further, Haruka can level up in multiple stats: singing ability, dancing technique, appeal, and overall skill. These all have different effects during her gameplay, and can be trained in different ways. She can also level up and unlock active and passive skills just like the other characters. Customization of Haruka’s playstyle is just as deep as that of the combat characters, which is really impressive for a rhythm game.

I also found myself doing optional content as Haruka more than any other character in any other Yakuza game. I generally only do a side story if it catches my interest—either it seems like my kind of humor, or it seems like it will be a nice story moment for the character I’m playing as. As Haruka, I was doing almost all of them. Most of them either helped Haruka advance her stats in some way, or had really touching story content. Sometimes both! It was also enjoyable just to get more rhythm game time. I like rhythm games.

All this training made me feel very invested in Haruka’s abilities. I could test myself against a challenge equal to the final challenge of the game and see how my current stats would hold up. With lower stats, I’d have to land perfect hits on every note for the full song, but with more stats I could give myself more wiggle room. I did not want to halt the game at the end to try the challenge multiple times. I wanted to ace it first try, just like Haruka. So of course I wanted to train as much as I could stand to ensure I could ace it. Some really good ludonarrative harmony there. It also made me feel actually proud at the end when I flew by the challenge effortlessly and took a victory lap. I really felt like Haruka was out there killing it.

I would play an entire game as Haruka.

Best gameplay in the series so far!

Story#↑

I’ll be covering important spoilers in spoiler blocks. I consider important spoilers to be things like twists, big reveals, character deaths (if any), and so on. Stuff that’s advertised on the cover of the game like playable characters and locations are things I don’t consider important spoilers. I’ll also be talking in broad strokes about character arcs, without details, outside of spoiler blocks.

The Bad#↑

I’m going to start with my criticisms so that I can end this section with everything I loved.

This story was massive. This was more than double the length of the second longest game in the series so far. I’m having a hard time fitting its entirety in my head to write this. I don’t necessarily mind long games, but this felt long because it needed to reach arbitrary quotas. There was a lot of fat that could be cut. It could have been perhaps 2/3 of it’s current length, and it would still be the longest Yakuza game to date while keeping all of the important story beats. I’ll give some examples:

Saejima has another prison arc. This arc was the worst part of Yakuza 4—can you guess how well it fits into this one? During this section, you are sent on random fetch quests by other prisoners so you can trade items, information, and favors around to get what you really want (usually information). This is exactly how Yakuza 4 already had it play out. It didn’t need a repeat. Just give me the information in a more convenient way, and move on. This section is made even longer because the developers felt like players wouldn’t like a section of a Yakuza game where they can’t access all the minigames and side-content like the others. So they give you some daydream sequences in which you explore one of the game’s cities and are forced to partake in some of those minigames. It’s like the devs heard that the Yakuza 4 prison section was a low point for the game, and “fixed” it in all the wrong ways and somehow made it worse.

Then, Saejima breaks out of prison (again) and is stuck in a blizzard. You fist fight a massive man-eating bear. It’s an utterly ridiculous, incredible boss fight, culminating in what has to be the single best final knockout blow in the series thus far. Alright, I’m on board now! …Then you spend the longest chapters in the game being part of a hunting village, trapped here because the snow has forced all nearby roads to close. You play out this long arc helping this hunter get revenge on the same bear you just had a fist fight against. Except, now you’re a hunter. You’ve got to sneak through the snow at a glacial pace, slowly reload your two-shot rifle, and play an incredibly clumsy attempt at a first person shooter. That’s how you take out the bear. Oh, but first, gotta learn how to set traps and hunt deer and stuff. It’s so slow. This could have been a great chapter if we were allowed to simply chase down the bear and fist fight it again, then head out.

Man, I love Saejima as a character, but he just can’t catch a break with the worst arcs of every game he’s in.

There’s also a lot of time spent getting all the characters caught up to speed with what’s happening in other characters’ stories. This could have been replaced with more cut-away “…so that’s what happened” moments (like the game already does in a few spots).

There were also some arcs where a minor villain was set up only to reveal that they were only a proxy for a greater villain. This isn’t so bad, but it happened so frequently that it felt like the game could have been way shorter with a few less proxies and more screen time for the main bad guys.

Beyond feeling long, many things felt very recycled. Some from the rest of the series, fine, but some from earlier in the same game. They were probably going for thematic parallels, but it got old when the same twist was played out for the 4th time. I won’t mention those twists here for spoiler reasons, but the pattern will become extremely clear if you play the game.

Some arcs got recycled, as well. This is possibly what the dev team meant when they said this was a “reboot” of the series. For example, Saejima has a prison escape arc, again. Kiryu is trying to hide from his Yakuza past and gets dragged back in, again. Akiyama discovers that one of his debtors is involved in a string of murders, and his good nature gets him roped into the plot, again. A man well-known by his local community digs into the past when he was wronged and discovers a yakuza plot that involves and endangers his community. The conflict between the Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance is at the forefront, again. Some of these are running themes throughout the series, but some of them were introduced only in Yakuza 4. It’s weird to see repeats so soon afterwards.

This story also had a few twists too many. The Yakuza series is known for its crazy, dramatic twists. You expect that going in. It’s okay if a twist isn’t absolutely perfect as long as it’s fun. Some logic can get thrown out of the window, as a treat. I’m here for the ride, as cheesy and pulpy as it gets. Yakuza 5 being “the ultimate/new Yakuza”, it had to have the most twists ever, right? Yakuza 5 weaves a beautiful, delicate construction of a story. The twists are generally within expectations for the series, and they connect together in interesting (even if pulpy) ways. Then, right at the end, one big twist gets turned too hard and the entire structure collapses in on itself.

In short Aizawa is the problem. His entire character arc is so incredibly stupid. This is definitely spoilers, but it’s such a pointless background element that I refuse to admit is part of the story. I recommend reading it just for the absurdity. You have a character who is introduced as a naive young punk in over his head, Aizawa. His sworn brother and mentor, Morinaga, is fatally wounded and Aizawa tries to save him. Morinaga is proclaimed dead. Morinaga later reappears, betrays the clan, and says that he has killed Aizawa. A body is found, unidentified, but we know Morinaga killed Aizawa, so it must be him. Aizawa later reappears, searching for Morinaga because he wants to understand why he betrayed the clan. So, Morinaga never killed him? Who was the body? Aizawa ends up committing murder in trade for information on Morinaga’s whereabouts, but is denied the information because it was a test and refusing to commit murder was the correct answer. This sends him into a deep spiral where he feels like he has failed everyone. Saejima inspires Aizawa to pick back up his search for Morinaga, as long as he never crosses the line of murder. He disappears until the end of the game. He reappears by beating up and killing many Tojo clan members to provoke Kiryu into a fight so that he can prove he is the strongest. He reveals (shocking twist) he is the son of the enemy faction leader (no one thought to background check him before making him the bodyguard of the head of our faction). He also reveals that the unidentified body is Morinaga. So, lets get this straight: Aizawa saves Morinaga’s life, then later murders him, then spends tons of time searching for the man he murdered and goes into a depressive spiral due to failing to find the man he murdered, and is inspired to find the man he murdered without ever crossing the line of murder. He then choses to prove himself against Kiryu, despite already losing every other fight he is depicted in (including a two-on-one against Kiryu).

All of these twists are dropped directly at the end of the game, to introduce the final boss. It also ruins Kurosawa’s arc by refusing to let it end when it should, and instead extending it to this nonsensical, desperate play. I don’t consider this the ending of the game. I consider the game to have ended just before this, and the rest of this is a dream Kiryu had due to exhaustion. It’s such a pointless retcon that adds nothing and only ruins the rest. It can be entirely ignored and the story suddenly improves tenfold. It’s equivalent to taking a masterpiece of a painting and then taking a literal dump on it before calling it done. They were too cowardly to go for a Haruka finale (which would have been perfect), and instead invented a final boss for Kiryu out of thin air with no regard for the impact on the rest of the story. It feels like management stepped in and ruined the art with focus-group-tested nonsense applied in the wrong places. This is the game’s greatest sin, possibly the worst writing in the series so far, but thankfully it can be safely removed from the story without issue. If they do a “remake” of the game in the future instead of a remaster, I imagine all of this will be entirely cut. It’s just a shame that it tarnished an otherwise perfect ending.

That was a lot of complaining, but I really do love this game. That should show just how much I enjoyed the rest of the experience. I’m glad that it’s time to talk about that stuff now:

The Good#↑

I absolutely adored the intro to this game. Kiryu’s Taichi Suzuki’s whole section was fantastic from beginning to end. We start with Daigo Dojima having a tense Yakuza meeting, then getting in a random taxi with a driver wearing a mask and sunglasses. Still, it’s pretty easy to tell who’s under there. Daigo talks about “work” to this taxi driver, clearly looking for advice. The driver stops the car and lets him out, and Daigo takes the hint that he’ll “have to find his own way”. The taxi driver takes off the mask to reveal that it was Kiryu all along, and he’s in hiding, with the name Suzuki (which I’ve heard is the equivalent of a “John Smith”). We see on the news that Haruka is an idol, and it’s a sore spot for Kiryu, though he clearly supports her. We soon learn that Kiryu is in hiding specifically to distance his past from Haruka so that she can have a shot at her dream.

It’s a brilliant opening. It tells us so many things about the game and sets the tone right away. There are conspiracies afoot. There will be tons of intrigue, and nothing will be as it seems. Most importantly, this is a story about dreams, and what we sacrifice to see them come true. So important that the Japanese version of the game is subtitled “Fulfiller of Dreams”.

Of course, Kiryu’s time in hiding doesn’t last long. The conspiracies unfolding involve him whether he wants them to or not. Once again, his past haunts him. What follows is my favorite Kiryu arc so far. Kiryu wants nothing more than to fade into the backdrop, but people keep digging up his legend. Kiryu shows them why the dragon is a legend. Kiryu prevents a war by drifting his taxi in between two armies, looking at the better-equipped side, and saying “If I beat the shit out of every single one of you alone, then there’s no war”. Then proceeds to pull off the most incredible feats the series has seen so far, including the most casual dodging of heat seeking missiles. It’s such a powerful feeling fight. You routinely get ganged up on and trapped. It repeatedly feels like maybe Kiryu has finally taken on too great a task, and then he manages to find a way out repeatedly. You get to fight through so many enemies, in the longest fight in the series, as you watch the reserves of enemies fall dwindle more and more to show your progress. It’s the pinnacle of bad-ass. It’s perfect. It could be the ending to another Yakuza game, but we’re less than a quarter of the way through.

Then we get Saejima’s section. I love Saejima as a character. He’s got this stoic wisdom born from his unwavering spirit and his heavy experience with tough times. He will shoulder any burden, and hear anyone out. Then he’ll tell them to project their depression onto himself and fight him to find their determination. He’s a wildly selfless and heroic character. This section may have dragged on a bit, but Saejima carried me through it.

Saejima’s section serves to reinforce the themes of the game in several interesting ways. The prisoners dream of being free. Even those who initially feel like their hard time is deserved and do not seek parole, eventually have this dream passed on to them. It becomes their dream too. Once out in the woods, Saejima takes on the dream of the hunter who rescued him: to kill the legendary bear that’s terrorized the village for years. These themes were kicked off lightly in Kiryu’s section, but while it focused on the greater conspiracy, Saejima’s section focuses directly on what dreams mean to us and those around us.

Then we get to peak gaming. It’s Haruka time. We’re shown the dark underbelly of the Idol industry. We’re shown Haruka’s determination and passion. We’re shown that her dream is aligned with those around her. We see the dreams and the conspiracies start to twist together, tying the major elements of the story to each other. More on Haruka later.

I very much enjoyed Akiyama’s inclusion in this section. He’s the perfect fit for the kind of intrigue going on, and his roguish charm is a great foil for the dark, serious villains it contains. He lightens up the scenes he’s in, and his warm, comforting nature is great for reassuring the cast of Haruka’s section. He’s also a blast to play as, in this game more than ever.

Akiyama is also an excellent example of the dream fulfillment theme. He has no real stake in the game. No family ties. No debts or other finances wrapped up in the situation. He just gets enchanted by a dream, and puts his life on the line repeatedly to see it fulfilled.

Okay, everything is starting to come together here. All the plot lines are converging and we’re starting to see the overall shape of this mystery, but the mystery has yet to unravel.

Enter Shinada, the final playable character of Yakuza 5. He’s a man down on his luck with a heart of gold. He got screwed out of his promising baseball career 15 years ago, but never blames anyone else. He would rather live in poverty than reveal any dirt that would cause fans to lose the dreams they’ve entrusted to the team. Though desperate for cash, not enough to even feed himself, and loan sharks literally snatching paychecks out of his hand, he’d never fail to get someone back their change. It turns out that this guy’s backstory is also tied into the grand conspiracy, because of course it is.

Shinada’s section is full of some of my favorite character writing in the series. They all feel so human. The story dives into their flaws, the lies they tell themselves to stay sane, their dreams and what they’d give up for them, and the power of found family no matter how unusual.

While the other sections are about how dreams spread and intertwine, what we sacrifice for dreams, and how dreams give us the determination to carry on—Shinada is a man whose dream was robbed. He runs from it. Hides from it. His dream brings him pain but he can seemingly never give it up, no matter how hard he tries. Despite “avoiding” baseball, he keeps track of detailed baseball statistics as a hobby. He competes at the batting center for cash prizes to feed himself. What a metaphor, huh? His dream, even as he claims to avoid it, is literally what is feeding him and keeping him alive. It’s all he really needs.

Then we get to the big finale. Everything comes together. The stakes are as high as possible, everyone’s dreams and conspiracies are entwined. There’s no untangling this now, and they’re all on a collision course.

Everything is propped against Haruka’s dream. I’m already a sucker for those “going to nationals, our future depends on this!” type stories. It’s a classic tale, and entire stories have been written about those stakes alone. However, everything else in the game is balanced on top of this. The tension is amplified by this. Watching Haruka get up there are sing her heart out legitimately made me cry proud, happy tears. The could not have executed that part any more perfectly.

In the background, dream after dream is lining up and fulfilling itself while also taking an obstacle out of the way for Haruka. Saejima gets to prove himself to Majima and win his family back even if it costs his freedom. Shinada finds a new love for his dream after seeing the stadium from a fan’s perspective, and comes to terms with his past by saving lives with his knowledge. Akiyama finally becomes a legend in both his hometown and among the yakuza.

Then, the ultimate finale. I don’t love the justification or setup for the final boss, but I really enjoyed what it represented. As Haruka finishes her debut performance, she realizes that this was always someone else’s dream that she inherited. Now that it’s complete, she’s free, and wants to return to her family. She proudly proclaims this to the audience, and announces her immediate retirement. Meanwhile, Kiryu has broken free from defending Haruka’s dream, and on to defend his own. Kiryu always has been, and always will be a yakuza legend. Kiryu engages in an ultimate showdown, while wounded, and proves once and for all that he is the strongest. Kiryu’s dream has always been to continue to prove himself as a yakuza, to continue to bare his soul in combat. The moment Haruka wraps up her dream, Kiryu is free to pursue his own. Not only that, his dream is pitted directly against that of Aizawa. When Aizawa lies defeated, Kiryu leaves him with this: Don’t give up on your dream. No matter how long it takes. I will be here for you. Face me again. In this one last punch, Yakuza 5 reinforces this: Never give up. Even in the most climactic moment, even with dreams pitted against each other, no dream can ever die, not even the enemy’s.

The Excellent#↑

I want to talk more about Haruka’s inclusion in this game, and why it’s brilliant.

The Yakuza series has an interesting relationship with gender—one that’s changed a lot over the series.

At the start, this was a story about men. In a way, it was a story about masculinity, especially about healthy masculinity triumphing over toxic masculinity. It was a story about brotherhood, about fighting to protect family, responsibility, honor, holding other men accountable, and so on. In this early era of Yakuza, women were mostly used as motivators for men. There’s a damsel in distress! How does the suffering and/or death of this woman affect the male main characters? Even when a woman was (rarely) physically strong enough to be a combatant, she was still clearly created as a plot device in a man’s story.

At the same time, fairly early on these games started to introduce minigames about playing dress up, coordinating outfits with jewelry and accessories, and so on. These kinds of minigames are now iconic mainstays of the series.

At the same time as that same time, it’s had minigames clearly designed to objectify women. From games of ping-pong in very loose-fitting robes all the way up to “adult chatroom quick-time events”. So, it never had great footing.

Still, it’s been improving. Some of the worst stuff has been cut from remakes. It’s had a few instances of good transgender representation. The women of later games are becoming better written. It’s still not perfect, but it’s making an effort.

Then we get to this Haruka section, and I’m delighted with how they handled it. Haruka, and the women of her world, are shown repeatedly to be just as strong, determined, and dependable as any of the male characters in the series. No, they’re not 7-feet tall and covered with rippling muscles. They’re stronger than that, because they aren’t that. They are fragile. A man lashes out at Haruka’s mentor and it injures her for the rest of the story. Heavy, intimidating Yakuza surround Haruka, and she cows away from them. Haruka reveals blisters on her feet caused by dance practice, and is visibly in pain from them. Haruka’s vocal instructor is overwhelmed by all the tragedies surrounding her. There are many more cases.

What demonstrates the strength of these women is not that they remained stoic in the face of adversity or sought to tackle everything on their own. What makes them strong is that they never let any of it slow them down. Haruka’s mentor continued to write with her other hand. Haruka would not back down from intimidating yakuza despite her visible terror. The vocal instructor relied on those around her to share her burdens and ensure Haruka’s dream could become reality.

These moments of strength and determination are given exactly as much weight as the other characters in the story. Haruka is a main character, and her story arc is every bit as dramatic and fun as any Yakuza story to date.

The men fight with violence. Haruka fights with dance. The men bare their souls through combat. Haruka bares her soul through her voice. The men deal with the twisted world of yakuza betrayals. Haruka deals with the twisted world of the idol industry.

Yes, the idol industry is given every bit as much weight as the yakuza. It’s fantastic.

As another inversion of the old issues, one of the main female characters has a previous love interest come up as an important plot point. This man is slid to the side, only to be used to prop up the woman’s story, because it’s about her. That man? Majima, a character so popular that he’s getting his own game soon. That is the level of male character they were willing to shove aside to make sure the story wasn’t overtaken by them, it’s about the women this time. Is that good writing? Perhaps not, but it’s at least interesting to see an old flaw have the typical gender roles flipped.

What I love most about Yakuza 5 is that it takes Haruka seriously. She’s a teenage girl dealing with bullying, paparazzi, and incredible pressure to fulfill a dream on stage. She goes out for food and shopping with her friends after school. She learns to express her own style, and grows confident in herself as a woman. She’s a more relatable figure than these massive beasts of combat—she’s just a girl with a dream.

She’s all of that, and she’s also the true main character of Yakuza 5.

When the sky is falling and everything is going wrong, when Kiryu and the gang have the chance to step in and protect Haruka at the cost of her agency and her dream, they outright refuse. Kiryu snaps himself out of an exhaustion and wound driven slumber to firmly say “absolutely not”. It’s Haruka’s choice, and it always will be. Instead, Kiryu has a message passed on to her, “Never give up”. This isn’t a command. This isn’t overbearing advice she didn’t ask for. It’s encouragement, plain and simple. He knows that she doesn’t need any of that other stuff from him. He simply sends his love. What’s even better is that when she receives those words, they aren’t some magic that sets her on the right track, she was already plenty determined enough on her own. The words just bring her a small bit of comfort, and honestly, serve more as a demonstration of a good bond for the messenger to observe as part of his own arc.

Those simple words really hit me. Throughout the rest of the game, they echoed through my head. When the last line of defense kept dwindling and only Akiyama remained, Never give up. When Shinada teared up at the sight of the Tokyo Dome from the bleachers, Never give up. When Saejima was forced to fight to the death, Never give up. When Haruka saw Kiryu fighting in the streets on the news while preparing to go on stage. Never. Give. Up.

When it’s all on the line, Haruka is the closer. Her dream is at the center. She brings the story home and wraps it up. It’s peak fiction. It made me sob.

Final Thoughts#↑

Rating: 8/10
Playtime: 34 hours

This was a flawed game, but I’ll treasure it forever.

I’m so glad I’m playing this series.

I cried again while writing this.

Never give up.
— Kazuma Kiryu