As I started meeting people 15 hours in and at the same time seeing references to people from the first hour, I got turned around. Keep in mind, this is a Japanese game with no English dub, so you have to read subtitles and keep up with character names. Other times, I found the overarching plot so cumbersome that I'd be confused as to who the onscreen characters were talking about. This is a buzz kill that dashes the movie vibe. I'd be watching a cutscene and everything was going swimmingly, but then it would fade to an in-game shot with no voice acting that made me read the dialogue by clicking through text boxes. Those moments are lost in a lot of ho-hum ones, though. Yakuza 4 has more than a few of these 'OMG' sections, and I love it for that. Watching the convict Taiga Saejima walk into a ramen shop and blow more than a dozen guys away or breakdown in front of a deathmatch crowd as he recounts what it's like to kill a man are truly awesome moments. The story plays out in cutscenes that can be pretty awesome and pack a punch. I had similar complaints about the last Yakuza - you're just doing the same thing over and over again - but back then, the story carried the game. Not to mention that I spent all this time leveling-up a character just to switch to another and do it all over again to unlock very similar moves. The new characters come with unique abilities - the policeman can parry and the con man can bulldoze people - but outside of a few person-specific moves, it's well-worn territory. Nearly all the Heat finishers I've seen are recycled from the last game. If you're keeping track, all that fighting is largely untouched from Yakuza 3. The AI could pull off moves I couldn't and never missed a move due to the lackluster targeting like I did. I dig the fighting, but boss fights are cheap. There's a sick satisfaction to the final blow I'd land and the slow motion tumble my victim would take while spewing out blood. As I wail on guys, I'm filling a Heat meter that allows me to execute devastating finishers like bashing a guy's head with a baseball bat. I get in the random battle, smear my opponent's blood on my knuckles, and bank experience points to make my character better than ever.

As I'd walk down the street in Tokyo's fictional red light district (the spot where nearly the entire game plays out), random people would run up and challenge me to brawls. Play The majority of their habits boil down to punching and kicking dudes in the face.

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