On my last Yakuza post I said I might not make another Yakuza post, but I just finished the game and I have to say, this is one of the best Yakuza experiences I've had so far.
I'd put it in 3rd place on the totem pole of Ryu ga Gotoku games, behind only Kiwami 2 and 7.
So, to talk about the ending I first need to talk about part 4 of the game.
Part 4 focus on Tatsuo Shinada, a disgraced baseball player who got banished from the sport for unfair reasons. We follow him on his day-to-day business and his dealings with a loan shark named Takasugi.
One day, a mysterious masked man shows up and asks him to reveal the secrets of the past. What he really went through, what really happened that got him unfairly banned.
After 4 chapters of this, this man is revealed to be Dojima Daigo himself, the 6th chairman of the Tojo Clan.
He wanted to know about this because he studied with Tatsuo and this had things to do with a Yakuza family from Nagoya.
In chapter 1, the entire gang returns to Kamurocho, Haruka included because of her upcoming concert at the gigantic Nippon Dome.
In this chapter they're looking for a man named Morinaga, but Saejima and Morinaga's aniki quickly find out that he's dead with information from the florist of Sai.
Here Katsuya shows up begging Akiyama for 320 million yen, to cancel the concert and to pay back what Daigo paid for him.
In this episode it is also revealed that Katsuya (the owner of the rival idol agency to Haruka's and "villain") is an old friend of Park-san and Majima. As was revealed in the last part, Park and Majima were once married.
This part shows that Katsuya is not the villain, as Saejima and Kiryu head up to the top of a hotel in Kamurocho Hills. The real villain is revealed (not going to spoil who)
and then they start planning on how to take this whole shebang down. That's basically what Chapter 4 is.
Here they are all planning to head to the Nippon Dome to make sure Haruka is safe, but they have to split up after learning Majima is still alive and being held atop the Millenium Tower.
Saejima shows up there and has his incredible final battle with... Majima?!
The villain makes both fight each other to "the death", if Saejima wins, Haruka stays alive.
Saejima does win, but no one dies, which means Haruka would die, but Shinada already dealt with the assassin (who was about to give up anyway), that being Baba-chan!
Then, Akiyama confronts all the goons around the city and just keeps fighting and fighting and fighting...
Meanwhile Kiryu goes to the Tojo Clan HQ after an urgent call and discovers that one of his former friends in the game is now the main villain, with a lust for power.
Kiryu beats him of course.
But comes out of the battle battered and ready to die amidst the cold snow.
Post-credits however, Haruka runs away from the concert, giving up on her dream, to save the man she loves, her father, her uncle, her everything.
This post credit scene was really strong and I loved it, so I feel like you should watch it.
Video is not mine, Remastered version says Fin instead of End
Overall, I absolutely loved this entry in the franchise, and I've already downloaded 6 through Gamepass on my Series S. I'm not going to do 6 episodically, as it's a single character game, which makes it a lot harder to make cuts from when to tell the story or not.
But I will likely make a post about it once I beat in a couple of days or weeks.
Thanks for reading!
