Yakuza 5

A complex storyline with lots of twists, Yakuza 5 expands on the already hefty helping that was Yakuza 4. Beautifully-rendered CG cutscenes will keep players in awe, and a myriad of mini-games and side quests will give more incentive to keep playing once it is over. A fitting swan song game for the PS3 era in the west.

Yakuza 5 is one of the best games in the history of PS3. It is an incomparable piece of art that has everything: five main characters, five cities, an attractive script, lots of missions, a great combat system...

Sure, the story starts to impede on the enjoyment especially towards the end of the game, but everything up to that point is nigh-on excellent. In the end, while it is a bit held back by the technical limitations of the PlayStation 3, Yakuza 5 builds a strong foundation with what is given and provides a substantial showcase for what the next entry will be capable of.

It’s a shame that such an amazing game is trapped inside PS3 and therefore is condemned to frequent technical issues caused by the lack of power and will never gain the popularity it deserves. [02/2016, p.46]

Yakuza 5 is a fantastic late addition to the 2015 line up of RPGs, and deserves to stand with the others, such as The Witcher 3, or Fallout 4. If you’re already a Yakuza fan, then you already know how great this game is. But, if you’re new to the series Yakuza 5 is a fantastic way to start out. Please, play this game.

It’s incredibly easy to plug multiple hours at a time into Yakuza 5, partly because it’s very easy-to-follow mission structure, and partly because the cut-scenes can take so long telling the story.

While it has its flaws, Yakuza 5 displays enough heart to overcome all of them. The over-the-top story will keep you wanting to know more while the gameplay is constantly changing so you're never bored. Yakuza 5 is a delight for both newcomers and veterans to the series.

Yakuza 5 is the best entry to the franchise so far. It offers more of the same, so it’ll please fans of the saga with its improvements in every aspect, but won’t win new fans among those who have tried previous titles and didn't like them. The amount of content packed in the game is impressive, and the detail put in the cities recreations is astonishing.

Yakuza 5 is what it is expected to be. It hasn't changed its formula, and it still works for its fans. You'll love it or you'll hate it, but if you happen to love it, you'll find one of the best games PS3 has received this year.

It may have taken a number of years to get here, but Yakuza 5 was worth the wait. It’s not only the most robust and well-executed game in the series, it’s also one of the best games of last generation.

Yakuza 5 is a response to the complacency of Western development. While previous Yakuza games dabbled through extraneous minigames, divergent player-controlled characters, and eccentric sidequests, none sewed its threads together with the consequence and commitment of Yakuza 5. Bloat is the inevitable negative, and Yakuza 5 shows some superfluous heft, but it's such a mountain of effort and arrangement that it's tough not to stand in awe of its accomplishments.

More is really more. Full of things to do, places to visit and people to meet. [Feb 2016]

We had to wait quite a bit for this game to arrive on our shelves, but it’s finally here, and it’s damn good. It’s the usual “Yakuza good” we’re used to, but this chapter is even shinier and choke-full of Japanese culture than the others. All with the typical over-the-top storytelling and fun gameplay. If you love the series (and there are a lot of reasons to do so), get it. You won’t be disappointed.

Huge, varied, and endlessly fascinating. [Christmas 2015, p.81]

Yakuza 5 comes to the west after three long years, but it still delivers a solid, deep experience, full of Japanese atmosphere and folklore.

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.

Yakuza 5 looks fantastic... Delivers one of the best stories in the franchise.

A solid new entry for one of the best Sega franchises. Full of things to do, places to visit and characters to talk to. A really magnificent adventure.

An unique game, steeped in Japanese culture to the core and exciting in its multiple storylines... and it's also the best Yakuza played so far.

There are tons of interesting stuff to do and see in Yakuza 5, it will entertain you for dozens… no, hundreds of hours.

If you like your kung-fu and melodrama mixed together and brought to a rolling boil like a nabeyaki udon, download yourself a copy right away.

Yakuza games have always been very generous when it comes to content. With five playable characters and as many cities to explore, Yakuza 5 pushes the concept even further. Too bad we had to wait for so long to get it.

Considering Yakuza 5 was my most anticipated game of 2015, it offered me everything I wanted in a game: a great story, tons of action, and wide areas worth getting lost in. While I wouldn't recommend that newcomers start with this installment, even with the reminisce option, there's enough for both novice and veterans of the series to enjoy. Sega offered me the best Christmas present, and it was completely worth the wait.

It manages to reconcile the warmer, lighter action-adventure gameplay of the fifth and sixth generations with the often dark and gritty open-world formula popularized by the seventh. At a time when gaming largely seems to be moving toward more realistic, cinematic experiences, it’s nice to see some traditionally “video game-y” elements — goofy minigames, ludicrous combat and over-the-top writing — make their way to this fifth entry unscathed.

Yakuza 5 may no longer be dressed for the part, but like any respectable gangster, it has a good heart beating beneath its unkempt exterior. It's a fitting analogy for a game that's ultimately all about aging, so while time may have been tough on Kiryu and crew, this dense and occasionally oddball adventure still has plenty of strong stories to tell.

Three years late, Kyriu's crime-drama story still works like a charm. If you love the saga, you shouldn't really miss this fifth chapter, as it cuts some loose ends and opens up to the future.

Its blend of brutality and sentimentality won’t be for everyone, but this is a dense, absorbing game. [January 2015, p72]

Yakuza 5 offers a different kind of open-world experience, giving you more of an immersive game than you may be expecting, even if it does suffer from repetitive combat and long cut scenes.

Yakuza 5's combat may feel dated, but its characters, sense of place, and absurd wealth of minigames and side activities are as fascinating as ever.

Yakuza 5 makes up for its modest shortcomings with enthralling diversions and eye-popping settings that compel one to look at travel deals to Japan.

Yakuza 5 is more Yakuza. Way more, and while the content isn't always the best of the series, it's still damned good for the most part. While every decent moment of pulse-pounding drama may be matched by a dose of piffle where characters stare into the distance and talk about following their dreams, there's no denying that Yakuza still brings the heat. Even after spending seventy hours on this, I'm still definitely up for more.

A gaming of charming positive spirit that, three years late and a generation off the pace, sill stands out in a crowded, wantonly destructive field. [Christmas 2015, p.114]