Should You Buy The Yakuza Remasters? | Yakuza Remastered Collection Review.

The Yakuza series has seen a surge of popularity here in recent years, and thanks to some remakes and much timelier localizations, it's been much easier for newcomers to hop in on the PlayStation 4 and see what all the fuss is about. But there were always a few key pieces of the story missing, namely Yakuza 3, 4, and 5, all locked to the PlayStation 3. That changes today, though, as with the digital release of Yakuza 5 Remastered and the phsical release of all 3 on 2 separate discs, each entry in Kiryu's story is now available from start to finish on one console. Well...as long as you don't count the odd spin-off. It begs some questions though. Just how well made are these remasters? Are they worth playing for those spoiled by the mechanics of recent entries? Are they worth playing again if you already played them on the PS3? Let's crack in and take a look. In case you're unaware, the Yakuza series follows ex-Yakuza chairman Kiryu Kazuma as he continually gets sucked back into the affairs of the clan he left behind. Its core loop is being a 3D brawler in between segments of heavily engrossing story, endearing or hilarious sidequests, and more minigames than you can shake a stick at. A lot of the charm comes from its grisled men with hearts of gold beating compassion into those who have turned astray, backed up with plenty of saccharine moments that rarely, if ever, become cynical. The games are as weird as they are sincere. It's often been called a Japanese Grand Theft Auto, but that only does a disservice to the series and what it's managed to accomplish over its years of constant iteration. And that iteration is showcased quite clearly here. Across these 3 titles, and potentially hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay, you can see the series slowly progress and see the introduction of systems and techniques that would guide the series to its current powerful stride. These are pretty interesting remasters, since in terms of benefits its pretty much the same across the board.

Yakuza 3, 4, and 5 all struggled to run at times on the PS3. Dropped frames, shimmering, and screen tearing was abundant as they attempted to run at 30 frames per second. One of the biggest improvements these newer releases offer up is a consistent, buttery smooth 60 frames per second. And it is a true and proper blessing, showing them side by side here is one thing, but it's the difference in playability that astounds. Combat in the original versions just feels janky and improper after being spoiled by these remasters, it's cliche to say but they just play like a dream now. The bump in visual clarity helps, too. The PS4 versions now run at 1080P and don't have the fuzzy visual output you can see here. I'd be lying if I said these games have aged wonderfully visually, even back for their original release some of these character models looked pretty...yeah...but they at least aren't marred by a lower resolution, which frankly was never helping their case back in the day. Another treat is a redone localization job for us outside of Japan, fixing some stiff writing and generally infusing more charm and personality into the proceedings. It also changes some decisions made around a decade ago, such as correcting some character names from Yakuza 3 that previously stood at odds with more recent entries. Some bits here and there are the same, but for the most part this is a more flavorful interpretation of these stories, giving them more of a chance at engaging those coming in from Yakuza Kiwami 2 and keeping them hooked. As someone who already experienced these games before, I found myself gripped all over again. Even Yakuza 3, which I wasn't as into back in the day, really got its hooks in me this time. I always give kudos to the localization team when I can, but especially in this case, combing over 3 monstrous projects that had already been done must have been a herculean task; but the results show strongly. Finally, these remaster restore some content that was cut from the PS3 versions. Shogi, cabaret, and more make their return to Yakuza 3, while thankfully chopping out some more problematic jokes and characters all the while. It's not every piece of content restored, but it's basically everything that matters. A couple of other nice touch-ups aid the experience too, such as English translations for the karaoke songs, and markers on the minimaps to indicate where substories begin have been added to 3 and 4 which is a true godsend. So from a remastering standpoint, these are easily the definitive ways to experience these games in English. There's still some shimmering here and there, which is a tad unfortunate, but the overall feel of the games immensely outweighs any minor hitches here and there. I was having a fantastic time. But I'd like to take some time to talk about each game in a much less focused way. I won't go too in depth, but if you'd like to see me delve into each game individually in their own videos, let me know in the comments and we'll see what happens. So, Yakuza 3. As more time has passed, this has become more and more of an interesting game when trying to recommend the series to people. It's sort of the "beach" episode of the series, taking place in Okinawa and focusing a lot more on a personal struggle tied to Kiryu, as opposed to Kiryu being roped into a larger conflict and being given an external reason to care. In terms of gameplay, 3 is one of the weaker entries in my mind, but it's also the entry that establishes the orphanage and in turn winds up spending the most time with the children Kiryu looks after. They pop up a bit throughout 4 and 5, of course, but the orphanage is a key thing to keep in mind about Kiryu's character from this point forward, particularly when it comes to Yakuza 6. In many different ways, actually, Yakuza 6 tends to echo 3. It's definitely a more chilled out, low key entry in the series, but if anything, that and its lovable cast of smallt own Yakuza still helps it hold its own ten years later. One quirk I'll warn you about though, enemies really, REALLY love to constantly guard in Yakuza 3's hard mode, and it gets a bit tedious after a while. Just a heads up.

Yakuza 4 was my personal entry point to the series and is what made me fall in love with it. In a first for the series you play as someone other than Kiryu. Akiyama, Saejima, and Tanimura, who in particular is rocking a new performance, round things out. There's a lot to love about Yakuza 4. It's the first and only main entry to let you explore above and below the series' city, Kamurocho. It's also pretty packed with content, when I got the Platinum trophy on PS3 I spent about 90 hours to get it; and that doesn't even require 100% in game completion. Its plot resolves in a messy way, and its villains really feel half-baked when stacked against the potential they could have had, but the journey to that resolution is still a lot of fun.

Yakuza 4 is an important game to me, and being able to fall in love with it all over again was an absolute delight, it's still one of my favorite entries thanks to the charm of its cast. And finally, that brings us to Yakuza 5. It's a release we waited 3 years for after Japan back on PS3, and now for the first time it will be available on a disc for us. The physical version even gives die hard fans a way to wrap up their boxed PS3 collection. Much appreciated, SEGA. It's really dumb that this exists, but it's exactly the kind of dumb that I love. This entry finally let us play as Haruka, in a rhythm gameplay style that I can't wait to see how new players react to, and offers up 5 different cities to explore with a total of 5 characters. All of this leads to a plot that's even messier than Yakuza 4's, and definitely feels more contrived and almost TOO saccharine at times...but Yakuza 5's strength is in its sheer amount of content.

Even 8 years later, it still has the most amount of things to do by a wide margin. I know some people that put over 170 hours in trying to get the Platinum Trophy in this title. It's very easy to call some of it bloat, but if Yakuza 5 happens to capture you, it alone could justify the price tag of this collection, let alone the inclusion of 3 and 4.

5 is a pretty middle of the road entry for me, if only because of its story, but digging in again to everything it has to offer was very exciting. So that's the Yakuza Remastered Collection. Viewed as a collective package, it's fantastic. Each entry has their own ups and downs that carry over from their original game design, but brought together and offered as one release they balance each other out to a wonderful release filled to the brim with quirky scenarios and plot twist after plot twist. The Yakuza series is quite easily one of the strongest franchises SEGA has ever produced, and to finally have each major entry playable with ease is simply wonderful. I don't recommend you to jump in first here, but don't skip these entries as you catch up on the series. Take your time, really explore each entry, and don't rush yourself and burn out just to get to the end. And if you've already played these back in the day on PS3? I think it's worth a double dip to experience these, unless you're holding out for a possible Steam release. I was worried I wouldn't enjoy myself on round two, but each and every time I was fully immersed, checking off my completion lists and eagerly awaiting each plot point just like it was the first time. The Yakuza Remastered Collection comes highly recommended from me, but...if you know me, you probably already saw that coming.