Yakuza 4 | A Complete History and Retrospective

[@YourFavoriteSon1]

How do you feel about Yakuza 4 Dad?

[@connorl3124]

Yakuza 4 is one of my favorites in the series. I love the different combat styles, the upgrade system, and much more! It was also my first Amon fight!

[@Damingo54]

please play Yakuza Ishin

[@connorl3124]

@@Damingo54 doubt he will since it’s Japan only (at the moment), and he would’ve done Kenzan already in between 2+3 if he was.

[@vvvv4341]

Got to say it, this is my least favorite Yakuza game in the franchise.

[@MysticZefer]

I only consider 0, 1, 2, to be mainline Yakuza games. 3, 4, 5, 6 are an alternate timeline to me. They are beyond parody with the terrible writing and constant predictable "twists." Not a single twist in 3, 4, 5 even remotely surprised me, I called most of the twists long before they ever happened. Akiyama is still the best character in the series though.

[@artistna]

I love how kiryu is the scary white suit guy that comes every year and beats up the try and hit me guy. Stressed him out so much he had to find something to take his mind off it.

[@i_knew]

lmoa

[@t.dmattocks6119]

​@@i_knewlaughing my off ass

[@jffj1425]

@@t.dmattocks6119would you go ass off, or balls out?

[@xyzen9673]

Yakuza 4 had probably the most amount of plot twists in the entire series... Just when you think somebody dies, its just either a cop out, bullet proof vests, or rubber bullets.

[@juicebiscuit4922]

Or an old man having to restrain himself from molesting haruka 🤮

[@BigA207]

I started laughing during this part of Kiryu’s section where it was just this over and over again.

[@gw6258]

Akiyama won me over immediately, wish we got to see more of him in 5. Cant help but love a dude that’s completely unfazed and chill all the time.

[@MikeJr9284]

The entire plot of Yakuza 4 can be summed up with two words: rubber bullets.

[@Sugarman96]

Those are also the two words that'll instantly upset any Yakuza fan.

[@loloshua]

@@Sugarman96 I didn't mind 'em

[@Kris-wo4pj]

@@loloshua i just started laughing and said half those people should be dead either way do to being hit in the head that close up. the bs in 6 pissed me off more but i think thats cuz i really liked that game better.

[@casual1118]

@@Kris-wo4pj I'm just curious, what pissed u off in 6?

[@pocketcircuitfighter6291]

@@Kris-wo4pj they did not get shot in the head, and what bs in 6? Is It the secret of onomochi?

[@elmilkmann]

I love the rubber bullets stuff no matter how silly people think it is. Mostly because Munakata calls out the whole thing as a dumb plan.

[@SHADOMEGA7569]

but it was a nicely hidden detail during the hit of 85 as you're not really looking at where the bullets hit, you'll see no blood which is nice as id imagine if a Kiwami 4 was made then it would of been done as if it was from Saejimas POV at all times so there would be blood but not really

[@HunterForHire422]

Yakuza 4 is a plot where all the bad guys are trying to betray each other and fucking it up in different ways. I enjoy it. Rubber bullets are the perfect example of that

[@MondoJohnny]

Leading cause of death in a Yakuza Game: Jumping in front of a bullet to save Kiryu or one of his friends.

[@masterofyugioh1000]

Kiryu: you fool, bullets can't kill me, but they'll kill you

[@MAXIMOMANMAX]

I haven’t made a KZbin comment since like 2006 it feels like, but i just wanted to say from Kain, to dogma, to Yakuza you’ve covered games I love deeply that I’ve never been able to properly express how much I actually think about them. You’ve become one of my favorite content creators honestly.

[@somebodynowhere]

I am glad you mentioned Saejima's wood carving revelations, it is such a crazy but perfect for yakuza little touch the series does

[@hchannel2397]

I want to add a thing about that controversy scene. I think that it is also important to think about the circumstance lead up to that moment. Saejima didn't shove Haruka down on purpose. Haruka was about to call for Kiryu, and Saejima, being startled, held her hand back. However, being tired from all the fighting and malnourish, he didn't have enough strength to do so, result in both of them fall down. Of course, it still very dangerous for Saejima to took quite a while to calm himself down in front of a child, but I'm sure that it wasn't his intention to do harm. In my opinion, if a lot of people feel unsettling by the scene (rightfully so), then I think it also somewhat work. 25 years waiting for deathrow in a hellhole prison really do mess with people mentality, whether they deserve it or not

[@qorpse]

Yeah, the scene looks awkward out of context but I honestly think it made a lot of sense given the circumstances and what Saejima had gone through up to that point. People are gonna criticize it regardless.

[@NoMaloneUnturned2]

Yakuza 4 had in my opinion, the best leveling and upgrade system, it's what the leveling system always should have been, incremental health and heat upgrades with each level, while you get orbs which function as skill points allowing you to select which skills to buy, each requiring a different amount, some you can and eventually will have to save up for. So your getting stronger each level but also have control over which abilities you can have at the start. I'd go as far to say it's the best leveling system in any game period, it's both linear and non-linear at the same time.

[@RayzeCruxis]

I think we can all agree on this statement: SAEJIMA'S HEAT MOVES ARE SO DAMN BRUTAL!

[@juicebiscuit4922]

What about the one he tries to use on haruka😭🤮

[@joshuakamalaraj2844]

@@juicebiscuit4922 nahh

[@volosami]

​@@juicebiscuit4922cmon bruh

[@Siritubi]

​@@juicebiscuit4922ay man chill

[@largercody]

I really love Yakuza and you’re doing a damn good job pushing these videos out each week. Thanks for the great content!

[@loli-knightxardej2252]

"I have no shame" "And I fucking hate the oil section" ~Son, 2022 Man I loved 4. While I think that it has more combat-related annoyances than the previous entries the various narratives more than make up for it. Also, damn Son, you got this one up quick! You're a machine.

[@qorpse]

It's funny because you can actually hold L2 (I think?) to walk and that section becomes a lot less annoying.

[@HunterForHire422]

​@@qorpselol same. That part was easy my 2nd time I totally forgot how mad it made me the first time

[@lexinah3292]

1:42:35 I’m proud of you son. I’m proud that you took my childhood hero’s(Cave Johnson) quote “When life gives you lemons, you make life take those lemons back” to heart. Except it’s an engagement ring instead of lemons. And instead of giving those lemons to the engineers , you sold the ring.

[@connorl3124]

While I agree about the combat system being “cluttered,” the 4 other panels other than “All”, “Soul” “Tech” “body” “Heat,” it sorts them by cost, so the 2 panel only has 2 orb skills

[@Samm815]

Yeah, I'm confused why he didn't put two and two together. Come on, my boy.

[@cryguy0000]

There aren't that many skills to buy per character to begin with so I never saw it as a big issue. And I found this upgrade system to be one of the best in the series, getting exp is easy and the freedom of choice is great

[@mason4401]

My favorite Yakuza game. The one that shows that Yakuza can live with Kiryu not being the only main character. Yes there are problems but this story is the best for some of our characters. Kiryu is the legend and see how that legend is shown when not playing as him. Still can't wait to see the rest of the video.

[@daedelous7094]

Majima's change of attitude was indeed down to a major paradigm shift I feel. His past was coming back, the persona he adopted now feels like a coping mechanism but now with Saejima out and face to face with him again, he becomes his old self once again.

[@bungo6364]

Great vid as always, really loving your Yakuza retrospective series. Yakuza 4 is tied for my second favorite game in the series along with Kiwami 2. Probably my greatest feeling in gaming when I was stuck on Munakata and had no heals because I forgot to buy some before hand and had to do the fight almost hitless. I nearly cried when I finally beat it.

[@connerbrennan7587]

im of the belief that there isnt a single bad entry to this series, i love the yakuza series so much, and am so happy that you're giving it the time of day. thank you for your hard work

[@After_HoursYT]

Son, how did you know I was going to unexpectedly be up all evening and need a new retrospective to watch? This is crazy, and don't tell your siblings, but this is why you're my favorite. You just get it.

[@LowResCatExplosion]

Oh my goodness thank you for pointing out that Diago fight! Nobody really talks about it, so I thought it was just me that was struggling. It's just not a well designed fight, you either have to spam tiger drop or slowly plink away at his health with no more than 2 light attacks at a time, neither of which is a fun way to play

[@OnDavidsBrain]

12:04 I like to refer to Akiyama as Loan Shark Sanji.

[@JustinHiryu]

Kiryu's final boss theme seems a bit heroic to me, which is fine. I think that in the end, he IS a hero. He is the one who causes the situation to turn out for the best in the end. Also, I totally agree with your assessment about the bad guys, son. All they seem to want is some form of power and thus are always in it for themselves. They scheme. They betray. They kill. However, no matter how many enemies they make. No matter how many enemies they kill, they always have one last one to face. Themselves. In the end, they are their own worst enemy and they are taken down by themselves just as much as by Kiryu or any other protagonist.

[@ProjectRedfoot]

I don't know what you're talking about most of the time, son, but I'll always listen.

[@cryguy0000]

Yakuza 4 is probably in my top 3 mainline Yakuza games. I love the combat, every character is fun to play as. I love the playable characters, every one of them is a cool new edition and awesome characters for their own reasons. I love the different perspectives and getting accustomed to their stomping grounds (or in Saejima's case, his lack of stomping ground). And the ending was incredible, a four way brawl with the best final boss theme in the series with its incredible amount of hype. Part of me likes to think the ending was to reveal who would "succeed the legend" given the title in japan. And when the final fight is with Tanimura, that was our answer, and we got it in a roundabout way with Judgment.

[@assassinofkeyblades]

Thanks sob for getting me into another game series I hadn't been interested in before first dmc now yakuza your perspective on them just gets me really invested keep it up proud of you son

[@harukashimizu2165]

Saejima taking out the Ueno clan just smacks of Boondock Saints, and I love it

[@philippstetter5611]

The thing that makes the final fight bearable is that theres a combination of gear that just negates bullet damage entirely, they dont even stagger you. With that gear on Tanimura the final fight is bearable, otherwise it really isnt fun

[@alexguy8960]

This was the game which got me Into Yakuza! Very excited to watch this video !

[@TheCikoni]

Great video man. Yakuza 4 to me is one of my favorites in the whole series but I never understood why fans of the series never talked about it much. Yakuza 4 is also the first game in the series I wanted to play again after I finished and I couldn't explain why this game struck me like it did but your retrospective definitly helped me figure alot of it out. Still hoping to see these characters in newer games, Akiyama is amazing, Saejima needs a game where he dosen't have to be in prison for once and I would love to see Tanimura back but with a fixed up fighting style, like perhaps Yagami's snake style since the two combat styles are related. Loved the video and I absolutely agree that this game isn't talked about enough and deserves to be high up in the rankings of great Yakuza games

[@skybluenerd219]

For the combat peeps, Akiyama: 9:24 Saejima: 31:55 Tanimura: 53:56 Kiryu: 1:06:56

[@Sad_KittenGaming]

Yknow, not to be mean towards the actors that gave their face for the games, but both time that they changed a character's face cuz of a drug scandal, (Being Tanimura here in Y4, and Hamura in Judgment) i feel like the new face fits better than the original. Just a personal take. The newer Hamura face looks and fits miles better than the original lol.

[@phbaum6186]

Great video! Saejima is my fav character from the Yakuza series besides Ichiban. He is such a gentle giant

[@rottengalaxy]

If you hold R1 while in the oil section you can move over the oil without slipping.

[@putinmahcochin1636]

52:10 "Little China is a safe HASIAN..." My slightly racially charged (but still fav) son.

[@TheBeird]

I had the exact same reaction to the Saejima scene with Haruka. It's a blemish on an otherwise strong entry, though it wasn't one of my favorites. I struggled with some difficulty spikes early on; all the stuff from the prison for one, and the VERY last boss was infuriating as shit. Left a bad taste. But it's still a good game. Feels like a warm up for Yakuza 5, which executes similar ideas much, MUCH, better

[@Sugarman96]

I think that scene might be the worst scene in the entire Kiryu saga. What Saejima did was bad, but Kiryu saying "it's been a while since you've seen a woman" made it so much worse. She's not a woman, she's 14, stop it.

[@armedweiss5531]

That scene with Saejima and Haruka is the most uncomfortable thing I've seen in the series so far. I understand they're trying to really hammer in that Saejima was in prison for most of his life, but that scene really felt unnecessary to make that point considering his thoughts are pretty clear throughout his campaign in Kamurocho.

[@FPoP1911]

Today's forecast, Sonny with a cool breeze.

[@glowyrm]

The 1-4 panels on the upgrade UI aren't random, they are skills that need X amount of ability points. It's actually quite intuitive. You can look at all the 3 point skills regardless of what type of ability they are, or you can look at a list of just soul abilities.

[@livchamps9573]

one time I was scheduled to be executed by beheading, but I cleverly replaced the executioner’s blade with a rubber one :^)

[@masterofyugioh1000]

That last substory you mentioned even hearing about it again teared me up

[@TheTwoGunKid]

I don’t mind the rubber bullets for the main plot and maybe smaller things here and there But after a while, it’s like the only things that gets brought up To the point when akiyama gets shot and it’s not a rubber bullet, I was more confused than actually shocked lol

[@Alex-ip1dn]

Time to put on your suits. New Yakuza video! Thank you Son ❤️

[@TheGrandBuzzard]

1:13:00 Westernbus himself can testify that my blood reached boiling temperature during this long battle

[@randomisaac5959]

The Munakata fight with Tanimura reminds me of Jingus fight in Yakuza 1, just with a lot more special forces and of course, Tanimura.

[@onlyinsomniac]

I just wanna be Majima when I grow up.

[@YourFavoriteSon1]

me too Dad

[@transformerboy8898]

(1:20:03 akiyama’s track four face kzbin.info/www/bejne/n2nXgWlmg5p4arM ) (1:20:36 saejima’s track four faith kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYrbg4l_i7qqjK8 ) (1:21:03 kiryu’s track for face kzbin.info/www/bejne/gmecqXiKaLWHoLc ) (1:21:49 tanimura’s track for faith kzbin.info/www/bejne/qXvFoHSOibB-Zrs )

[@KoalaMarch77]

I'm proud of you son.

[@YourFavoriteSon1]

Thanks Dad!

[@suavebob]

@@YourFavoriteSon1 Do you have daddy issues or something dude? I don't understand all this dad / son stuff in your videos and find it mega creepy and offputting.

[@thegamingprozone1941]

@@suavebob maybe it's just a gimmick

[@rickythemaddragonxiong8757]

Are you doing other games by RGG Studio like Fist of the North Star Lost Paradise & Binary Domain? The parry gets better when you upgrade it, the oil section you can walk through by strafing during targeting.

[@loloshua]

Saejima gameplay enjoyer, opinion validated

[@theazureknight9399]

Some of your criticisms seem a bit silly since you downplayed those supposed issues when it came to 3 for the sake of defending the game and overblew them here for the opposite reason. Other than that, pretty good retrospective.

[@mediawatcher9225]

While I do like this game, there are two things that bugged me, the story and the bosses, for the story there are some scenes that just really kill the mood, the amount of betrayals and idiotic decisions characters make during cutscenes can be unintentionally funny at times, while I think they’re an improvement over 3 it feels like each character could’ve had more bosses to them since most of them were given to saejima, and they generally don’t last long anyway, these are just small nitpicks I had with the game, solid overall

[@LinkDing]

You skimmed past Hamazaki's character development

[@TedCruzisthezodiac]

1:45:22 four tickets minions rise of gru please.

[@alexanderrasmus4645]

I was just looking for some to watch! :D

[@B1GPUDD1NG]

This has definitely been the most rage-inducing game in my Yakuza journey so far

[@Quieresbro]

11:40 In case nobody else said this, The 1 2 3 and all tabs are separated by Spirit orb cost 🙏❤️

[@Wok_Boi]

Glad I’m not the only one that wasn’t weirded out with e Saejima and Haruka scene bruh

[@LinkDing]

34:29 he was in Yakuza 3. He was the Kamiyama in Okinawa

[@BukaKEK]

Very good review bro but I found few mistakes here and there. Also, my only major complaint is that the fights you complained about are mostly skill/knowledge issue.

[@Agentshadling]

Minor mistake but I noticed at 53 minutes you said Akiyama instead of Tanimura when describing that he glows to parry.

[@majthestampede]

We need more Akiyama, baby

[@martin_crakc786]

In the “oil section” you can use the lock on button to walk, that way you will not slip

[@billmozart7288]

Great work, son.

[@martin_crakc786]

To continue later 58:34 1:22:55

[@shortbreadhead]

I love coming back to these to remind myself what happened at certain bits. I got thinking though, would you not consider doing a Dead Souls retrospective?

[@franciscor390]

Thank you for the commentary.

[@boybillythebutcher4575]

Akiyama, my MVP.. the "Sanji" of Yakuza games

[@maskedhobo]

Another excellent video son!!

[@RainbowGamx]

I'm pretty sure as long as you WALK on the oil section, you don't fall, i only falled once on my 1st run

[@qzo-faith]

Great video son, excited to see the Yakuza 5 video will be 4 hours long.

[@d.d.7720]

For every boss fight you have to complain about something, that's more frustrating that the fight itself.

[@Quieresbro]

I remember thinking the twists in this Yakuza game were so stupid at the time

[@Grayson_Baker]

Yakuza 4 was my first game in the franchise. It was awesome.

[@goldenMushroom328]

thank you, son. keep up the good work

[@WINSTONECHAN]

Sugiuchi is such an underrated character and performance

[@areyouafraidofthedog]

Beautiful recap.

[@FeiFongWang]

This was great, not as good as the first three storywise atleast imo, but still a top notch game. Honestly whatever happened to Akiyama? I've always thought he made a great juxtaposition to the intense Yakuza types we see throughout the game, and he could have made for a more down to earth viewpoint on some of the games. Still, thanks for the video son, I know it will be great!

[@lilimdeurella3659]

For what I understand, one possible explanation is that his voice actor is apparently very expensive so they probably cant use him as much as they want to.

[@pocketcircuitfighter6291]

@@lilimdeurella3659 they can get takuya kimura so money IS not an issue

[@franciscor390]

@@pocketcircuitfighter6291 I completely agree with this, Akiyama may not be as popular of a character in Japan or team RGG doesn't find him that important. Because i cannot think of many other reasons, because he certainly seems to be a fan favorite character for western Yakuza fans.

[@NBA0]

Story wise Yakuza 4 clears every yakuza besides Kiwami 2.

[@thestubbedtoe8308]

For some reason this game just didn't click with me like the others did, don't know why

[@ajbennett5427]

You can hold r1 to go in fighting stance and walk on the oil without slipping.

[@mythicdale8757]

37:44 I don't think it is as foul as you make out son. I think Saejima has a lot of conflicting emotions but i think the overriding one is that Haruka looks a lot like Yasuko here. He almost immediately goes to sit away and introspects. I think it is a lot less sexual than it seems. Kiryu was correct to trust him; their battle sort of allowed Kiryu to understand Taiga a lot more intimately.

[@tintillor]

You can ignore the oil section completely by walking.

[@magnumopus8124]

I agree with you about tanimura and his style. I thought it would be very interesting, but I realized just how flawed he is. I just beat this game last night and tanimura was the ONLY protag I had to change the difficulty on during the boss fights. It was absolutely ridiculous all I had to do for his fight, fighting off those knife wielders and elite soldiers.....on top of that ass hat munakata or whatever his name is popping shots at you every two seconds.

[@kylejamson4426]

That was fast son

[@scarletcrusade77]

Hi Son, would you ever consider doing a video series on either the Siren series or the Dishonored series? Please let me know since you're my favorite channel here on YT and I'd donate a lot of money if you'd do either!

[@suavebob]

I take it you have played both the Siren and Dishonoured series? Why do you need another persons opinion on a series which you already have your own established opinion? Also... Willing to donate "a lot of money"... Out of sheer curiosity, define your donation amount? Get yourself a hooker or something dude, its better value for money and you'll enjoy it more.

[@Deadono]

I had Siren: Blood Curse for the PS3 but I only rented it since I bought it digitally. Can't download or play it anymore. Might buy it again if I see it in the wild for a reasonable price.

[@scarletcrusade77]

@@Deadono Yeah I had it for the PS3 too. Its actually quite enjoyable, short but sweet. A little confusing story wise you need to play it a bit to understand fully. But its truly and underrated gem of a series

[@Jose-se9pu]

37:38 Because JAPAN, that's why.

[@maxtubb]

I would play this game but my PS3 copy keeps getting the “the black screen of death” after I finish the chase segment in chapter 2, any one know how I fix this problem?

[@اميركاظم-م2ز]

Hey Son. Will you be Covering Yakuza: Dead Souls?

[@paradoxicalsg3522]

42:18 the true face of terror

[@Shadowrulzalways]

Tanimura is trained in Taiho Jutsu. Remember, he is a cop. Japanese police are trained in Taiho Jutsu.

[@newssbluebubbims5099]

I got lucky and cheesed the DAIGO fight, got him stun locked against the wall and just gave him the square, triangle, triangle and it kept resetting the stun, took over half his health easy before I screwed up and he recovered. But once he did, ya he was crazy, but the COPS FIGHT? Ya I agree, was damn near impossible

[@rna151]

Yeah, I don't remember having any trouble against Daigo at all. The cop fight though? That was a slog and a half.

[@stevenclaiborne2587]

Daigo was somewhat annoying, but I can handle him. Munakata's fight was my least favorite in the series though. Even the Amon fights from the other games (and even 7) were either more easy or more enjoyable overall. Fighting Munakata's goons with Tanimura's style was such a legitimately awful gameplay decision.

[@theazureknight9399]

All the cops (save one I believe) are vulnerable to grappling, just take them all out with that before moving on to Munakata and you're good. Daigo can be cheesed with counters (good ol' tiger drop). If you try to just mash buttons and heat actions to slog your way through the battles then it's gonna be quite infuriating indeed.

[@frostsoul4199]

this might be a bit of a hot take but it certainly feels as if the fights in this series where you have to battle a whole horde of bad guys are just painful to endure and are just really annoying to trudge through. having to deal with large swathes of enemies while playing as a character that's better suited to 1v1 fights is incredibly frustrating.

[@FuraFaolox]

this is my favorite Yakuza game

[@LevinsConvoy]

You are right. Daigo is a little cheap. Good thing I know how to be cheap too. Daigo can block and counter well, but can he block and counter a Tiger Drop? I didn't think so.

[@CysmaWinheim]

I just finished this game yesterday! Is our timing uncanny or what?

[@ShivanSnake]

Watching Tanimura without mod seems unusual

[@masterofbloopers]

Yakuza 4 is in a weird spot for me. It has the least memorable plot of all the mainline games. Something something, rubber bullets, soemthing something, balls out. The highlight for me was Tanimura, the disposable playable character of 4. His moveset was the most fun. I played the PC version with the restored content mod, and I cannot imagine playing that game again without OG Tanimura. In addition to him being pretty cute, I felt bad for his actor's life being ruined over false allegations, so I thought it best to do him justice by restoring Tanimura to his original counterpart.

[@derpderpderpPSN]

54:19 Tanimura***

[@ahzidaljun]

the scene with taiga and haruka was very weird for me too. i think this is where western audiences differ from eastern audiences, in that something like that for us is a colossal red flag that warrants a real talking to and even barring him from seeing haruka at all. this is one of the things that made me never really like saejima no matter how much he's pushed - it's not unreasonable he'd be a little weird around the first woman he sees, but specifically a 14 year old girl? and to the point where he gets vaguely physical with her? it's very icky

[@ladyzoe5734]

Also a joy to see a new video from this channel. Great work as usual. And thank you for not including offputting, disturbingly bigoted jokes or takes in these videos. I really respect the way you spoke about the weird scene w Haruka, other gaming-centered KZbin channels might have been gross or made misogynistic comments. Basically, it’s just nice to be confident that when I see a new video from this channel, I know it’s going to be thoroughly enjoyable start to finish. Cheers

[@suavebob]

disturbingly bigoted jokes? You had me at disturbingly.... I am indeed intrigued.

[@ladyzoe5734]

@@suavebob bro what

[@suavebob]

@@ladyzoe5734 I don't know what joke you are referring to as I am not familiar with the series.... I was saying I was intrigued to find out.

[@ladyzoe5734]

@@suavebob it’s a generalized criticism of other video game channels being very unfunny

[@fumomofumosarum5893]

What are you talking about...? No human being would have made " misogynistic comments " in the scene with Haruka, what's wrong with you to even think that..? Like wtf is going on in your head? Reading stuff like that is really disturbing to me. It's such a weird assumption to make...