I'm on the finale for
Yakuza: Dead Souls so my opinions are now with a rather suitable chunk of the game, and are pretty much my final ones. I've spent 28 hours playing it, far less then I would with a normal Yakuza game and that's probably telling. It's not...horrible. It's just not great. You get used to the gunplay and it's actually ok. The different characters do play different enough, although upgrades are shared. When the story kicks in it can really get going (Chapter 4 Part 1 being absolutely brilliant for a certain character wise, plus any part that includes the second playable character.) although it attempts to pull off some of the usual Yakuza twists and turns but ends up being a bit flat set on this zombie background. The substories are genuinely funny and well written though.
But...The game has enough about it to put me off against the parts that I like. Subterrania is the biggest offender, offering you Yakuza's version of "sewer levels" with endlessly repeated rooms and corridors. Each character has to go through twice, with the exception of the final character who just gets one huge version. It's horrendous design and should not be in the game, especially as you cannot start halfway. If you try and rush through it you can easily be met with Molotov throwing zombies who can literally stun lock you to death in a corner. It is possible the most unfun thing about the entire series.
So yeah, I don't have much to go but I highly suspect my opinions won't change over the last 1 or 2 hours. It's...A shame. It could have been good but, and I hate to say this, it just isn't. The true quality of the game is outside of the quarantine area - where all the Yakuza mini games and delights reside; all of which are found in Yakuza 4. If anyones still waiting for this one, bargin bin it. It'll no doubt go down in price soon as I very much suspect that no one will buy it.
Ath said:
Next up, it's Pandora's Tower on Friday. I'm mainly getting it because I support Operation Rainfall but I'm still looking forward to it all the same.
After what has been said about Last Story, I'm highly tempted to start this first. I don't know much about it gameplay wise but I really like the sound of the concept. If pulled off well it could give some emotional tugs, or it could be completely awkward like a lot of jrpgs! Although I should probably go back to the Xenoblade beast first...