Rating
Yakuza 5
Yakuza 5 is an open-world action-adventure game and the fifth main title in the Yakuza series developed by Sega. For the first time in the series, it features five settings across Japan along with five playable main characters. The game also features a brand new graphics engine, unlike previous games in the series that have been re-utilizing the sa...
Details
- Released
- December 6, 2012
- Developer
- Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio
- Genres
- Action · Adventure · Open world
- Publisher
- Sega
- Platforms
- PS3
How it plays
Time to beat · 3 player times (IGDB)
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Yakuza 5 Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
More than anything else, though, what I loved so much about Yakuza 5 is just how effective it was in offering a vision of Japan’s red light districts. As playgrounds for the adults, the wealthy, and the risk takers, they are full of excitement and a little bit of danger, and so filled with exotic sights and sounds that I could almost smell the food vendors or rain on the asphalt after a storm; that’s how effective this game is at bringing me back to Japan for just a little while.
Yakuza 5 isn't a perfect game, but it's perfect for what it is.
While dragged down by pacing issues and boundary restrictions, this is still the biggest and best the series has ever been.
Yakuza 5 is exactly the sort of game the expression “greater than the sum of its parts” was made to describe. Each facet of the experience, taken individually, leaves room for improvement, but, reflecting on my time with Yakuza 5, I can’t conjure much in the way of disappointment. Some bumps notwithstanding, it’s a hell of a ride, one that I heartily recommend.
An immense adventure through the food, fun, sights, and lives of a virtual Japan. The storytelling fell off, but if you can get engaged in going places, having you characters sampling meals, playing Virtua Fighter 2, and doing practically everything you could want to do yourself in a vacation to Japan, you probably won’t even care by the time you’re done. As a game it could clearly use more polish in areas, but for a heavily story driven game to be packed with so much extra content is refreshing, and a rarity in today’s game market. Plus, the combat’s solid, and all the DLC is free.
Sega released quite possibly the best Christmas gift for editor Sam Wachter. It may involve hostess clubs, bicycle murder, and... dance battles? Bless you, Sega. Bless you!
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life on the PS4 is the final game for series star Kazuma Kiryu, and it’s a poignant, bloody, and brilliant finale.