Yakuza 4 - Story
The are four stories set in the fictional red light district of Tokyo, following four different characters and the circumstances by which they all come together in the end.
Shun Akiyama is a money-lender, working for a finance company, who uses his wallet to help clients that others won't and deals with the collection side of the business as well.
Taiga Saejima, a man serving a 25-year sentence in prison, must adjust to his new surroundings in order to survive, by engaging in battle with both inmates and guards, before making a daring escape.
Masayoshi Tanimura works as a cop in the red light district and must balance his sense of morality with the corruption he participates in daily.
Kazuma Kiryu, a character from previous installments, must continue living the existence of an ex-Yakuza boss turned orphanage operator, which brings his past back to haunt him and threaten everything he has worked for in terms of building a new life.
Yakuza 4 - Gameplay
Basic Gameplay
The object of the game is to move from mission to mission and complete each one successfully. In order to move onto the next chapter, the primary mission must be completed first. Once a mission is assigned, it will appear on your map and activating it requires moving your character to that location in the city.
During gameplay, you may be required to perform a number of varied tasks in order to successfully complete the objective. These tasks can include: locating another character, talking to a contact, eliminating a threat or retrieving a special object.
Map Key
- Blue Icon: Your character's current position.
- Cone Protruding from Blue Icon: Your character's field of vision.
- Red Icon: Your next objective's location.
- Red Arrow: An objective located off of the current map screen.
- Green Icon: The location of a character that is tailing you and the direction they are facing.
- Yellow Icon: Location of enemies.
- Red A: Asia Alley
- Colored Areas: Locations you can access.
- Red Areas: Locations that you cannot access.
Combat
When doing battle with enemies, your HUD will change to accomodate the transition.
- The yellow bar in the top left corner of the screen represents your Experience.
- The orange bar in the upper left corner of the screen represents your Health.
- The white bar in the upper left corner of the screen represents your Heat Meter.
- The yellow bar in the bottom right corner of the screen represents your enemy's health.
Heat Meter
The heat meter will rise as you successfully overcome enemies during combat. When it becomes full, your character will suddenly give off a glowing blue flame at which point a devastating finishing maneuver can applied to an enemy. When you are ready to use the Heat Action, the Triangle icon will appear on screen as you approach an enemy, press the triangle button to activate.
Each character differs in their Heat Action and new finishers can be acquired as the game progresses.
Experience
As gameplay progresses, your character will have the opportunity to level-up and thus gain new combat abilities. In order to move up a level, you must acquire a certain number of experience points by defeating enemies or completing missions and other tasks. The highest level each character can reach is a Level 20.
Other ways to gain experience are:
- Using a weapon to the point that it breaks into pieces.
- Ordering food and drink.
- Raising a girl's heart level to 20 and taking them on a final date.
- Completing a training sequence.
Yakuza 4 - Controls
- Walk/Run: Left Analog Stick
- Move Camera: Right Analog Stick
- Change Weapons: Left or Right on D-Pad
- Drop Weapons: Down on D-Pad
- Pause Menu: Start Button
- Quit Menu: Select Button
- Heavy Attacks/Heat Actions: Triangle
- Light Attacks: Square
- Get Up After Being Knocked Down: Rapidly Tap Triangle, Circle or X
- Interact/Grapple/Pick Up Object: Circle
- Drag Enemy: Left Analog Stick in any direction while grappling enemy
- Back Up: X
- Side-Step: X + Left Analog
- Block: Hold L1
- Lock-on/Straffe: R1
- Lock-on and Straffe:
- Set Camera Over the Shoulder: L2
- Toggle Map: L3
- Taunt: R2
- Enter First-Person POV (Adventure Mode Only): R3
Yakuza 4-Intro Video
Yakuza 4 Walkthrough - Hints and Tips
- Use the straffe maneuver whenever battling enemies with weapons as they can do significant damage to you with each hit.
- When strafing an attack, wait until the movement of the enemy's strike begins to know which direction to move to.
- When battling enemies with short range weapons or in hand-to-hand combat, the safest and easiest direction to dodge the attack is backwards.
- If you are having trouble figuring out what to do next, enter the top pause menu and read the dialogue on the right side for clues.
- If you are looking for experience points and don't want to enter combat in order to break a weapon, then simply stomp on it where it lays or drop it on the ground repeatedly.
- When facing off against a large group of enemies, use elongated weapons or heavy attacks and combos that will hit multiple opponents in one shot.
- When facing off against a large group of enemies, separate a single opponent to attack one-on-one by grappling other members of the group to put them down or running off in a different direction to bait a thug to follow you.
- Attack the enemy with a weapon first so that they will drop it and you can then use it in combat.
- Search the corners of areas for hidden weapons when a battle first begins.
- When fighting on rooftops, the most effective use of your Heat Action is to drag an enemy over to the edge and throw over to eliminate him for good.
- Before doing battle with bosses or large groups of enemies, upgrade your abilities if possible t increase your efficiency with eliminating them or blocking their attacks.
- When battling a large group of enemies, it is sometimes effective to exit the fight and come back around to perform a running attack to knock multiple opponents down at once.
- Save your health increases for when you are extremely low on life, because you may not want to waste it in case another wave of enemies or a boss enters soon after.
- When facing an enemy with a gun amongst a larger group of opponents, stay on the move to avoid shots and try to eliminate him first, then pick up the weapon and use it eliminate as many threats as possible.
- The easiest way to execute a Heat Action is with a weapon or when the enemy is laying on the ground.
References
Table of Contents
- Akiyama Story
- Saejima Story
- Tanimura Story
- Kazuma Story
- Finale
- Video Review
Yakuza 4 Facts
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Publisher:
SEGA -
Developer:
SEGA -
Platform:
PS3 -
Mode:
1-2 Players -
Genre:
Action -
ESRB Rating:
M for Mature -
Release Date:
March 15, 2011
