Yakuza 4

Yakuza 4 (Also known as: 龍が如く4: 伝説を継ぐもの Ryū ga Gotoku 4: Densetsu wo Tsugumono (lit. "Like A Dragon 4: The Successor to the Legend") is a 2010 action-adventure game developed by SEGA's CS1 R&D team (now known as Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio) and released by SEGA for the PlayStation 3. It is the sequel to Yakuza 3 and was released on March 18, 2010 in Japan after a playable demo on the Japanese PlayStation Store on March 5. It was then released in Europe and North America in March 2011. A sequel, Yakuza 5 was released in 2012.

A remaster was released on the PlayStation 4 on January 17, 2019 in Japan, and worldwide on October 29, 2019 as part of The Yakuza Remastered Collection. Followed by the versions for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One were released in January 2021.

Summary
The game takes place during 2010. With having four protagonists in the story, Each of their arcs are summarized below (with the exception of the climax).

Shun Akiyama

The owner of the "Sky Finance" moneylending company, he deals with a disturbance coming from one of the members of the "Ueno Seiwa Clan" during his collection run. Alongside with Hiroaki Arai and his friend Takeshi Kido, Arai then goes into killing one of the members "Masaru Ihara" in which it got Akiyama arrested for the murder. After being released shortly from the arrest by his secretary "Hana" and was given advice by the arresting officer "Junji Suguichi" to stay away from the yakuza. Followed by that, he meets a client back in his office who goes by the name of "Lily", who she requests for a loan of ¥100 million. Akiyama finds out that the people involved within Lily are getting murdered. Lily then takes the loan and quickly flees. Akiyama is then met by "Goro Majima" who's out looking for Lily.

Taiga Saejima

In 1985, Saejima and his oath brother Majima prepare themselves to go into a hit on the Ueno Seiwa by assassinating their chairman alongside 18 of his members in a ramen shop as planned. But Saejima is forced to do it himself since Majima has failed to show up. He successfully carries out the hit but the chairman survives. Saejima has then been arrested and transferred to a prison in Okinawa where he is set to be executed. Fast forward to present-day 2010, Saejima learns from "Goh Hamazaki" (one of the antagonists from Yakuza 3) that he was set up in the hit. The two then planned and make their escape from the prison, but moments before their plan succeeds, Hamazaki seemingly sacrifices himself to let Saejima escape. He then gets washed up ashore near to "Morning Glory", an orphanage ran by "Kazuma Kiryu". He asks him for help to get him back to Kamurocho and find Majima.

Masayoshi Tanimura

Tanimura, a detective from Tokyo's National Police, goes to investigate about Ihara's murder, but he finds Lily and rescues her from the "Shibata" family. He learns that their patriarch has been organizing the 1985 hit alongside Ueno Seiwa's "Isao Katsuragi". Lily reveals to Tanimura that his father was investigating the hit but has disappeared ever since. She was coerced into killing Shibata's men by Katsuragi, who promised to reexamine Saejima's case if she eliminated them or gave him ¥100 million. Tanimura meets up with Katsuragi and he reveals that he was responsible for the murders in the hit. Katsuragi orders his men to have Tanimura killed but he survives his way out thanks to Suguichi. Tanimura's superior "Satoshi Hisai" reveals that Suguichi is his father's partner, he then goes to return the money back to Akiyama and discusses to a conclusion that Katsuragi is silencing anyone involved in the hit. Suguichi then reveals he has killed Tanimura's father and is a mole from Katsuragi.

Kazuma Kiryu

Hamazaki happens to have survived from the prison and also ends up at Kiryu's orphanage. He shows a ledger he stole during his escape to Kiryu and explains how the police have been using dirty money that came from Kyouhei Jinguu's ¥10 billion to build the Okinawan prison he and Saejima are placed just to hold yakuzas from threatening their deputy commissioner "Seishiro Munakata" in his plan to take control of the Tojo Clan. Initially hesitant, the two met Lily who's looking for the Okinawan prison so she can see Saejima. They take her to an abandoned building so they can discuss where Saejima is currently at but they're thwarted by the guards from the prison who wanted to take the ledger back. Kiryu fights his way out and takes Lily with him back to Kamurocho.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It is the first game in the Yakuza series to feature four main protagonists, it introduces the new three being Shun Akiyama, a loan shark. Taiga Saejima, an ex-yakuza who's been imprisoned for about 25 years. Masayoshi Tanimura, a kind-hearted local corrupt detective. And with the fourth being the returning protagonist: Kazuma Kiryu.
 * 2) The first game to offer a gameplay on different fighting styles, A breath of fresh air in the battle system.
 * 3) *Akiyama is a very fast and nimble fighter, almost all of his attacks consists of just kicks and can quickly dodge away oncoming attacks..
 * 4) *Saejima is much more of a tank than Kiryu, relying on his slow but sheer of brute force and can charge his attacks for a brutal finish.
 * 5) *Tanimura focuses more on parrying and submissions, he has the ability to automatically pull his opponents and get behind them.
 * 6) *Kiryu remains the same as he was in Yakuza 3 but also being slightly updated. He is the only character who has a "Red Heat" mode and serves as a powerhouse to the three characters.
 * 7) While it only offers one location, that being Kamurocho, the city has become more interactive as ever in terms of exploration. It is the first game where you can go explore the rooftops and even underground malls and parkings.
 * 8) *So far this is the only game in the series to have these, later installments have the rooftops and undergrounds become less explorable or being completely inaccesible.
 * 9) The upgrading system has been reworked and more convenient. Rather than gaining enough EXP just to get one new skill, you instead get 3 orbs (serving as upgrade currency) for everytime you level up. You can use these orbs to purchase any skills you want depending on what level you are. No matter what order of skills you purchased, you'll still get all of them once your character reaches the maximum level (20).
 * 10) Each of the four characters have their own side-stories (being different than the usual substories), they all have benefits relating to each of the characters in combats.
 * 11) *Akiyama meets a man named "Saigo" who trains him with combat drills.
 * 12) *Saejima helps an old man into digging through rocks under Kamurocho so he can find his lost valuable treasure.
 * 13) *Tanimura meets "Nair", a Filipina detective who came to Japan and find "GG", the man who killed her family.
 * 14) *Kiryu is asked by a group on anti-gangs to take down 7 of Kamurocho's largest gangs.
 * 15) The substories have become wackier, heart-warming and expansive since each character has their own and it gives them a little more of information about their pasts.
 * 16) Revelations also have become expanded to each of the four characters.
 * 17) The fighting system has been updated, enemies no longer have the tendency to block most of your attacks (which was a MAJOR problem in Yakuza 3.)
 * 18) The theme song "For Faith" is excellent and so far is the only one in the series to have lyrics (although can be distracting due to it's "Engrish" but it doesn't ruin the song.)
 * 19) Excellent cast of voice actors, such as Akiyama being by Koichi Yamadera (who did Spike from Cowboy Bebop and his dubbing for Donald Duck in the Japanese releases of the Kingdom Hearts series), Saejima by Rikiya Koyama (known for Coyote Starrk from Bleach and Deep Sea King from One Punch Man), etc. Kiryu as usual is reprised by Takaya Kuroda.
 * 20) The soundtrack in this game is great as always. Each of the playable characters have their own style of music that befits their fighting style and their nature.
 * 21) *It even goes as far as to their final boss music, going with the game's main theme but the tone in each of the four being different to fit the nature of the battle.
 * 22) The translation has been improved, this is the first game where Kiryu is now referred by his last name in the subtitles as opposed to the original Yakuza 1, 2 and 3 being referred as "Kazuma".
 * 23) Exclusive to PS3 versions, it has a simple but awesome install screen.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The PC releases of the remastered version is very unoptimized and not ported very well (alongside Yakuza 3 and 5), the common problem having high CPU usage, there are even instances where the game crashes whenever a battle is ended with a Heat Action.
 * 2) *Thankfully, SEGA has issued a patch. But prior that, there has been an alternative by SilentPatch
 * 3) Tanimura's final boss fight can be a tad difficult, because you fight hordes of soldiers but his fighting style isn't focused for crowd control.
 * 4) Super Finishers: a feature first introduced in the original Yakuza 2 and expanded in Yakuza 3, doesn't return in this game.
 * 5) The story can be a little convoluted to some.
 * 6) The physics can be all over the place at times.

Reception
Although it didn't gain much traction when it got first released, Yakuza 4 received mostly positive reviews from critics.

It received a score of 38 out of 40 from Famitsu.

It also has a valuation of 78 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 59 reviews.

Trivia

 * The promotion for the original PS3 release can be a bit off, since the marketing team at the time were focused on branding the Yakuza series to be a "gangster-y" type of game similar to the Grand Theft Auto series.
 * Like most Yakuza games, it has a licensed theme song that's exclusive to the Japanese release of the game. It was even used as the opening intro.
 * In 2016, Tanimura's original voice actor and likeness Hiroki Narimiya had allegations of use in cocaine, which were proven to be false but he retired from acting due to this incident. When the game is going to be remastered in 2019, Tanimura's appearance has been altered to match the look of his new voice actor Toshiki Masuda
 * Thankfully there is a mod that restores Tanimura's appearance in the remastered versions of the game.