Yakuza 4 Remastered

While Yakuza 4 Remastered doesn’t offer much in the way of quality of life updates or any substantial presentation improvements, the entire package is still solid. It knows what it is and what it wants to do, and is ultimately an improvement over its direct predecessor in a number of ways. It may be different from other titles that succeed it, but I feel like this is one of the better games in the Remastered package and worth picking up.

Yakuza 4 brought for the first time since the start of the franchise new main characters as well as a variety of combat styles, while evolving the graphics and gameplay from Yakuza 3, making it a more polished game. This HD port keeps all that's good from the original release while the better resolution and framerate make the graphics shine again.

While its immediate sequel, Yakuza 5, did many of these things in a more impressive fashion, Yakuza 4 laid the important groundwork to make it all possible.

Continuing down the path carved by Yakuza 3 Remastered, this fourth installment in the Yakuza franchise doesn't reinvent the wheel, but offers 25 plus hours of fun for all the fans of the series, even if with a barebone remaster.

Yakuza 4 aged better than the third episode, that's for sure: the game delives an almost modern Yakuza experience, with nice graphics, a solid gameplay and four different characters with different styles and backgrounds.

I walked away from Yakuza 4 having had a much more fulfilling experience than I did with its immediate predecessor. The new characters revitalized the old "Tojo clan is in trouble" plot, and the different combat styles brought new life to the never-ending street brawls. I do wish that the developers left Kiryu out, as his addition feels unnecessary. Yakuza 4 brings the series ever closer to its modern-day iterations, with enough polish to be playable for newer fans of the series. I look forward to seeing what the last part of the Yakuza Remastered Collection brings us!