Yakuza Dead Souls: a review
Yakuza: Dead Souls is approximately the 6th console version in the series (there have been 2 other PSP games that never made it to the US), the fourth Yakuza title on the PS3, and the third to make it to the USA. Traditionally, Yakuza games are a mixture of the sandbox, action RPG, and brawler genres, all wrapped up into one massive experience. I've only started playing the series on the PS3, since I did not own a PS2 (Yakuza 1 and 2 were on the PS2), so Yakuza 3 was my first entry into the series; it's been one of my favorites ever since.
To summarize the backstory, you play as Kazuma Kiryu, who is more or less a "Godfather" in the Japanese mafia. There's a huge crime family, and he was the 4th chairman of the Tojo clan. You have since then retired, and now run an orphanage in Okinawa. However, as things go with the mafia, you keep getting pulled back in.
The fun of this game is that you're in an immersive world of Tokyo, people walking past you, running into you, flashing street signs, and music come from the bars as you walk down the street. Then, the occasional punk decides to run into you and pick a fight, or try to mug you, but that is a very bad mistake on their part. From then, you turn around, a crowd gathers around, cheering, while you beat the ever-living crap out of the punk and his friends. You can use your fists, feet, a bicycle that's just sitting over to the side, a beer bottle on the ground, etc. to teach these punks a lesson. Then, typically, you have a grand finishing move on the last of your enemies. My favorite is you knock the guy to the ground, you plant your hands on either side of his face, and you kick your feet up high in the air (almost doing a handstand on his face), and come down on his face with the full force of your knee. Blood shoots everywhere as he groans in pain. The funny part is that after all that, he's not dead; he's covered in blood and apologizes profusely to you, and gives you money or other items for your trouble. This is the kind of quirkyness that really captivated me--the animations, and the fighting techniques you unlock, are really fun and it's just hilarious to watch.
Aside from the main story and side-quests, you are allowed to do everything at your own pace (save for certain sub-stories that only occur at specific points, or sub-stories that you miss because you advanced the story too far). If you get the urge to just explore, there's no pressure--you are free to try the local fare at a bar, order drinks until the point of inebriation (as the bartender gives you a brief history of what you just ordered). There's sub-stories, strip clubs (no nudity, but pole-dancers in bikinis), tranny bars, etc. (one sub-story in Yakuza 3 had you being chased by a tranny and your objective was to get away; if you did not get away, the screen goes dark and it's left up to your imagination as to what took place). Then, there are the fun mini games: bowling, billiards, slots, pachinko, poker, blackjack, baccarat, a video arcade with this really cool "shmup," and many, many others.
In other words, you get a huge bang for your buck with these games; I have clocked over 220 hours in Yakuza 4 to platinum it, and I still was not able to complete each objective in all of the mini-games.
Summary
Yakuza: Dead Souls switches things up a bit with the series. This game really isn't "canon," but a side story, or a "what if" parallel story.
Dead Souls starts out with Kazuma Kiryu at the Sunshine Orphanage in Okinawa; the phone rings, and a mysterious person is on the line with Haruka (one of the older children at the Orphanage), holding her hostage. So again, you need to go back to Tokyo; this time to rescue Haruka. Meanwhile, you start out as Akiyama, the money lender of Sky Finance, from Yakuza 4. A mysterious person kind of shambles into a local Yakuza office and turns out to be a Zombie. He bites the guard at the door, and suddenly, all the Yakuza jump out of the 2nd story window onto the street. Long story short, the infection spreads and the Special Defense Force (SDF) start cordoning off the section of Kamurocho.
Gameplay
Certain aspects of the gameplay in this entry into the franchise have been completely altered, mainly involving a new shooting mechanic. Previous Yakuza games did have guns, but you would normally hold down the left trigger to lock on, and the right trigger to fire at your enemy--you didn't really need to aim at all. Also, in this game, you're only allowed a certain number of slots to hold items and ammo. The rest of the total slots are locked until you gain enough experience and choose to unlock them or not. Many times, you're faced with tough decisions on whether you should use your special points to learn about new, more powerful weapons, better armor, learning new techniques, or increasing your item, equipment, or weapon slots.
In previous Yakuza games, the gameplay was divided into your normal roaming activities, where your weapons are not accessible, you can't pick up bikes and traffic cones or destroy the environment. Only when a random enemy encounter occurred, you would enter the fighting mode, where you can pick up objects in the environments, use weapons, and use the melee combat mechanics. However, in this game, the gameplay is essentially divided by the regular city zone and the quarantine zone. When outside the quarantine zone, you do not have the random encounters or punks to beat up; you have to explicitly go into the quarantine zone, and then you are in action mode the entire time until you exit the area.
The action mode, that is in the quarantine zone, is completely different, from the previous games in the series. In this game, your primary weapons are guns and grenades. You can pick up objects on the ground and use them for melee, but you do not have the punch and kick combo mechanics from the previous games. There is no "Heat" bar, but it's replaced with a sniper gauge. I did notice that some of the unlockable skills do contain melee fighting, and it appears that once you unlock all the abilities, you have the option to unlock regular fighting (I won't be able to confirm this until I get that far). However, as stated previously, you must gain levels to gain upgrade points, so you have to choose wisely what to unlock.
So, once you get into the quarantine zone, there are zombies and other monsters (called mutants, which are mutated zombies) all around. You do not necessarily have to kill every single zombie, and in many rooms, there are monster closets where an unlimited number of zombies spawn. Many times, you just need to take out the zombies in your way, and run past them.
The quarantine area is totally wrecked, with cars in flames and bombed-out buildings. Once you are in the quarantine area, your guns are drawn and you can switch between equipped weapons using the D-pad. Each character is given his own weapon; Akiyama starts out with twin pistols that have unlimited ammunition. You also get a heavy side arm that has 6 shots, but unlimited ammo. Most of the guns so far in the game are upgradeable. You level up by gaining experience points after fighting zombies, eating food, or completing sub-stories and missions. Once you level up, you are awarded points that can be used to unlock new abilities for upgrading weapons, armor, and learning new attacks or defense tactics. As with previous Yakuza games, you collect different materials, and bring them plus your weapons, to the weapons dealer so he can use them to enhance your weapons and armor.
Controls
This is probably the more controversial part of the game. The control scheme is less than desirable, and you only have a choice of two control schemes; neither of which really change anything. You're not given the option of mapping the controls, which really is unfortunate. I did find a setting that will move the camera behind the character when he goes into aiming or L1 firing mode. The controls are the biggest complaint I have about the game, but it's not a showstopper. Once you get used to the controls, it's not that bad, but it really makes the game more frustrating at times.
So to summarize the controls in the action mode, the L1 trigger is used to strafe, and the camera adjusts behind you. When you move the left analog with L1 depressed, your character will focus on the point in which he was facing when you started holding down the L1 trigger. Then, there's an alternate aiming mode, if you hold down L2, a red reticle appears on the screen, and you use the left analog stick to move the reticle. You may have already noticed the problem--the left analog controls two different functions depending on which trigger is held down. This is the source of much aggravation, because as hoards of zombies are coming for you, you've most likely got the L1 down and you're moving away from the zombies while firing at them. If you hit L2 without stopping your movement, the reticle will appear, and will immediately start moving up on the screen (because you're already pulling back on the left analog).