Few titles on the show floor were less guaranteed than Sega’s latest Yakuza entry. While we spent the better part of 2009 wishing, hoping, and praying Sega would throw us a bone and localize Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4 was thrown our way without the need of a giant internet petition or fan boy pleading. It’s on its way, and it’s awesome.
Though I consider Yakuza’s more subtle, cultural features to be its crown jewel, apparently Sega considers the combat engine a better demo. Much to my surprise, the E3 demo considered solely of brutalizing random thugs on the street. This wasn’t bad by any means, combat in Yakuza has always been solid, especially in the context of a modern day beat ‘em up, it was just a tad unexpected.
Anyway the fourth entry in the series gives you control over four distinct protagonists and the demo consisted solely of beating up a group of guys as each playable character. Kazuma returns with his slick white suite, of course, but the three new guys try and bring something new to the table. To be perfectly honest I couldn’t be sure of the identity of the other characters, other than to say they’re the guys in the game’s logo. They did, however, boast different fighting styles, one of which was gifted with the ability to pick up extra heavy environmental objects (or downed aggressors) and then slam them into other people.
Beating people up was fun, but that was seriously all there was to do in the demo. New weapons attached to the dpad were nice, and the game looks much better than the somewhat stiff looking Yakuza 3. Other than that it was hard to get a feel for Yakuza 4. It’s safe to say we’ll get a better look as the 2011 release window draws new. I hope, at least.
