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Welcome to the Big City kid: no, it’s not Vice City this time, or even New York – it’s the city of Kamurocho in Tokyo, Japan. For those who have been following the Yakuza series, you’ll be once again setting foot in the city and uncovering its many secrets and coming across the city’s own fair share of criminals and mafia gangs.

Yakuza 4 is the direct sequel to Yakuza 3, but if you haven’t played any of the games you can catch up on the storyline by checking out a nifty feature called ‘Reminisce’ before starting up Yakuza 4. This pretty much gives you  the main back story of what has happened in the past events of the series. The story is like a drama soap-opera tale of honor and betrayal: more specifically, the plot revolves around a young woman trying to make a total of 10 million Yen within the next ten days.

Each chapter involes a character that is connected to the story itself; there’s Shun Akiyama, a loan shark who seems to be helping people with loans and money problems. Second is Taiga Saejima, a fugitive who had been in prison for 25 years after murdering 18 yakuza members in 1985. Third, there’s Masayohi Tanimura, a detective. Throughout the story, the young woman after 10 million Yen manages to receive support from each of the three men and eventually unites them in finding a way to summon the legend of Kamurocho Kazuma Kiryu, who is also the main protagonist in the series itself.

Gameplay: Much of the gameplay of Yakuza 4 centres around fighting gangs and Yakuza members, and each character you play as has their own unique fighting style:  Shun Akiyama specialises in kick attacks, Taiga Saejima focuses on brutal attacks, Masayohi Tanimura excels at parrying enemy attacks, while Kazuma Kiryu offer a mixed, well-rounded style of attack. Aside from these differences, you’ll likely spend most of your time mashing the Square and Triangle buttons an awful lot – there are also quick-time events that pop up from time to time that require you to hit the right button at the right time to avoid getting hit. It’s not just plain old fighting though, as RPG elements are adding into the mix through the acquisition of ‘soul points’ from random battles on the streets as well as through the main story. These points can be used to upgrade and gain new abilities, which can come in handy during some of the tougher fights.

During battles you’re not limited to your fists or even standard weapons – you can also pick up random everyday objects like bicycles or even bins, which you can attack your enemies with to cause extra damage. There’s also a handy feature called ‘Heat Mode’, which allows you to pull of extra powerful moves once you’ve built up enough charge in your ‘Heat’ meter.

The chase sequences from Yakuza 3 return, but thankfully they’re not as frequent as before. If you are chasing someone you can throw bottles at them to slow them down or if you are close to your opponent you can tackle them by tapping Square, or pressing X to break free if you are caught by gangs or police. Apart from fighting and brawling in a large city, there is also a variety of mini games, like video arcades at Club SEGA, fishing, table tennis and of course karaoke. There are also plenty of side-quests which you can do at anytime.

Graphics and Sound: From the character animation to the big city of Kamurocho, the graphics are well done and highly detailed. If you have played Yakuza 3 you won’t notice much difference, and most parts of the city haven’t changed much – having said that, you may still get lost in the city, and distracted by random gangsters and Yakuza members.

The game does have a mandatory install of 5GB unfortunately, though if you are running out of space you can simply delete some data and game installs from games you don’t play that much. There are a lot of cut-scenes throughout the game, and most of them you can’t really skip. They do tell a good tale, though at times it’s more like watching a Japanese drama than playing a game.

There is no dodgy English voice acting but there are English subtitles, and there is a lot of dialogue text throughout the whole game, that occasionally you may want to skip just to get to the gameplay and fights. The Japanese voice acting is really well done, and it’s a good sign that they’ve always kept the Yakuza series in Japanese and not in English. Soundtrack does a good job too, from its main theme, to its arcade machines, and even to its Japanese songs and tunes in the Karaoke bars.

Overall: Finishing the main story can take you up to 20 hours or more, and there are still plenty of things to do in Kamurocho from side-quests to taking snapshots on your phone. There is excellent Trophy support for the game, though in order to get the Platinum you’re pretty much going to have to beat the game at least three times.

There is also online support where you can play arcade games and upload your scores online on the PlayStation Network; and there are also 2 player games like bowling, pool and darts. If you are into into sandbox games like Grand Theft Auto, or you’re into crime games like the Mafia series, Yakuza 4 is well worth checking out , though if you are new to the series it’s recommended to check out Reminisce before starting.

Ultimately, there is a great deal of fun to be had in the city of Kamurocho, and Yakuza 4 has a lot to offer for fans and newcomers alike.