Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

So that's how you ended the journey.
　Well at least as it should. I didn't want to spoil it for people, but if you are new to Yakuza, you would probably think the same. Later installments are clearly money milking.
Summary Review:
　　About
　　Description
Gᴀᴍᴇᴘʟᴀʏ
　
　Well at least if you come from Yakuza 0 like me, I wouldn't call the gameplay as fun as Yakuza 0 did. Maybe because it was prime Kiryu that made RGGS make Y0 combat fun, or Kiwami series and 6 were meant to follow its story. Overall it was better than remastered Kiryu, and at this point I just wanted to follow the story, so no hard difficulties like I did in Yakuza 0. Just normal one, and you can also enjoy easier if you want a fast story telling that attaches you to this series.
　It's not that clunky but still limited. Hey, it's Yakuza games. You expect the combat gameplay which, tbh, I would never call Yakuza game gameplay good action games. It's not that great tbh. I play fighting games and Yakuza never made sense. But I love the many variations of skills in this game. Now your followers fight along with you. It's better than 4 and 5. Sub quests, long side quests, mini games are also back. The problem is you no longer have the trouble finder item like Kiwami, so you need to search for them manually by walking around Kamurocho and Hiroshima. Overall, you wont get disappointed.
　
Gʀᴀᴘʜɪᴄ
　
　♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, it's better. Its night Kamurocho looks so much better. Following its story, we can now enjoy daylight because older games look so ass during the day, especially Y3. They really made a good view and graphic trick for night life in Kamurocho until this games a full real time rendering as it seem. But Y6 did make day missions look better, maybe because of engine limitation and SSAO back then. Well with that graphics, it comes with a price. I wouldn't call this game optimized. No matter what setting I used, it uses CPU so intensively. Low to high setting, eating CPU usage so bad. It had the same old problem just like the remaster series. What you need to do is to unlock your FPS rather than lock it at 30 or 60. Set that aside. Kiryu looks more intimidating. Expressions were good, except hub quests are now full of emotionless NPCs, including Kiryu. Not sure why the downgrade. Thanks Sega. Well if you have CPU usage issue, just set the FPS to unlimited. Thank me later.
　
Mᴜʟᴛɪᴘʟᴀʏᴇʀ
　
　Yakuza 6 doesn't have any kind of online multiplayer. It does feature local two-player multiplayer for select arcade mini-games. Nothing special there.
　
Cᴏɴᴛʀᴏʟ
　
　Just like what the dev wanted, play it with a gamepad. i don’t even know how tf someone is still complaining this game ain’t fun using keyboard & mouse, literally they have better specs than me and can’t afford a cheap gamepad. oh wait, maybe because americans paying $80 for a branded gamepad made in china is funny, here in asia we buy the same quality for $20. eat that western
　
Pʟᴀʏᴛɪᴍᴇ
　
　Up to 29h to 55h, welp i do have the same playtime, HLTB really does come from the community, not promotion btw.
　
Sᴛᴏʀʏ
　
　I mean, bro kiryu’s story should have ended here. if you follow the series after this you might be disappointed later when you see him again. like i mentioned, kiryu kinda became something they keep bringing back to the series, let my guy rest RGGS... from Y0–Y6 babysitting the entire tojo clan is messed up, wtf is this, one clan carried by one guy... that’s the comedic thing about yakuza btw, but also kinda sad...
　but the story for Y6 does end well, 3 climaxes and plot twists behind plot twists, some unexpected things happen. weirdly i don’t even know why they bring different ethnic groups back and some of them feel out of place, maybe they just wanted that boyband guy in the game, you get the point... aand yea unlike previous games you only play as kiryu, no akiyama, but they all still exist, same with the others.
　overall for “the song of life” title... it’s not that sad tbh, yakuza 0 still holds the trophy, but it’s still a heartwarming story to end kiryu’s path.
　
PC ᴘᴏʀᴛ
　
Performance Test
(For this review)
　•　+60 FPS.
　•　Run on NVME.
　•　HD resolution.
　•　CPU | Medium-High Usage (intensive)
　•　GPU | Low Usage
Game Optimization
　Kamurocho is the only map where it uses your CPU intesively, the more NPCs on the map the harder your CPU works. the problem is no matter what settings you use it keeps using the same resources, so set your graphics to medium or high.
　


Aᴄᴄᴇssɪʙɪʟɪᴛʏ
　
Audiotory
　✓　Playable with disability
_
Speaker config
　•　Stereo
　•　Surround 5.1 & 7.1
Sound Setting
　•　master
　•　music
　•　effects
　•　dialog
　•　cinema
Visual
Colorblind
　✗　Deuteranopia
　✗　Protanopia
　✗　Tritanopia
　✗　Custom
UI
　✓　Dark
　✗　Scale
　✗　S. Preset
Subtitle
　✓　on/off
　✗　Scale
Display
　✓　Fullscreen
　✓　Windowed
　✓　Borderless
FPS
　✓　30
　✓　60
　✓　Unlimited / Any
Misc
　✓　Vsync
　✓　Gamma
　✗　Contras
　✓　Brightness
　✓　Resolution Scale
　?　Customize config file
　✓　Advanced graphic setting
Motor/Body disability
Control type
　✓　Simple
　✗　Complex
½　Slow reaction
✓　Binding custom control
Verdict
　No problemo.
　


Bᴜɢ / 𝙲𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚒𝚗
　
　•　Kiryu neesan.
　•　Emotionless substories.
　•　Unlimited CPU for less intensive usage.
　ⓘ　Build ID 6657092
　
DLC
　
　Yakuza DLC is never worth it for substories, they’re just eh average side stories.
　
Exᴛʀᴀ
　
Suggested Region Price
Correct　　:　7
Cheaper　 :　19
Overprice　:　15
Overal score : 5.5/10
　I suggest you buy now because it seems yakuza games won’t go on sale, they already finished their promotion campaign for the PC launch.
Community Health
　✗　Toxic
　✗　Moderator/Developer Problem
Note :
　Worth
　


Oᴘᴘɪɴɪᴏɴ
　
　Probably gonna go on a hiatus before playing the next installment, maybe. Judgment is my next target :)
　
Rᴇᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴅᴇᴅ?
　
　Yes OFC finish your journey with kiryu!
　
Oᴛʜᴇʀ
　
Previous reviews have been posted　:
　•　Stronghold 3
　•　Stronghold: Warlords
Playtime source　:
HLTB
　
Extended Review:
Due to Steam's 8k-character and limitation for reviews, read the full in-depth review in this guide!
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© 2026 MSR by Rens Agatha
　ᴵ ʷᵃˢ ⁿᵒᵗ ᶜᵒᵐᵖᵉⁿˢᵃᵗᵉᵈ ᶦⁿ ᵃⁿʸ ʷᵃʸ. ᴾˡᵉᵃˢᵉ ᵛᵒᵗᵉ ᶦᵗ ᵘᵖ ᵒʳ ᵍᶦᵛᵉ ᵃⁿ ᵃʷᵃʳᵈ ᶦᶠ ʸᵒᵘ ˡᶦᵏᵉ ᶦᵗ. ᴵᶠ ⁿᵒᵗ, ᶠᵉᵉˡ ᶠʳᵉᵉ ᵗᵒ ᵛᵒᵗᵉ ᶦᵗ ᵈᵒʷⁿ ᵃⁿᵈ ᶜᵒᵐᵐᵉⁿᵗ ᵒⁿ ʷʰᶦᶜʰ ᵖᵃʳᵗˢ ʸᵒᵘ ᵈᶦᵈⁿ'ᵗ ˡᶦᵏᵉ.

At the start of 2025 I thought I'd play this whole series in order. Managed to finish them all from 0-6 and thought the story was absolutely incredible. Kiryu is such a great well made character and it feels like I've pretty much played through most of his life.
I played Gaiden first over a year ago which then made me want to see the story in order. Glad I finally got through them all, 3, 4 and 5 do show their age though and were a bit of a slog but overall a solid 9/10 game series.

Yakuza 6 is a fantastic conclusion to Kiryu's saga, wrapping up his story in a way that feels both emotional and satisfying, even though Kiryu returns in later titles. The new minigames and fresh location in Onomichi are a blast, and the graphics look stunning, really bringing the world to life. It's noticeably shorter than previous entries, making it much easier to 100%, but that doesn’t take away from the overall experience. It's a great entry in the series, even if it feels like the end of an era for the Dragon of Dojima.

Actual masterpiece cried genuine tears at the end and i dont cry, the only other game to make me cry was Infinite Wealth. Highly recommend.

I'm not salty at all that Majima progressively gets less and less screentime for each installment; I can't wait for him to be in the next game for just a still image.

Pros:
- The game is gorgeous because it uses the same Dragon Engine as Yakuza Kiwami 2. Seeing Kiryu in high definition is always a joy. I loved taking screenshots of this game.
- Substories, Characters, and cinematography are simply top-tier. Aside from the aesthetics brought about by the dragon engine, RGG studios really put a lot of effort into making this a hype game.
- Clan creator mini-game is actually a lot better than in YK2. I loved the Majima Construction aspect in YK2, but the gameplay itself wasn’t my kind of flavor. This one is much easier to stomach and the accompanying story is pretty fun.
- You get to chat with Anri Okita and Yua Mikami.
- Ono-Michio is one of the greatest video game characters ever created.
Cons:
- Still the same Dragon Engine problems. This game actually came before YK2, so it was even less-optimized. There was a bit of pop-in with the video game assets (I am playing from an HDD, not an SSD, but no other Yakuza game had pop-ins as big as entire buildings). Movement is still a bit slip-and-slidey and the combat is trimmed down. This game really feels like a dry-run for the Dragon Engine.
- Probably my least favorite game in terms of side-content and post-game content. Once you finish the main story, there isn’t much else to do in this game. There’s no pool mini-game. No cabaret club mini-game. You can only play as Kiryu so I already maxed out his stats before I finished the main plot. This game really shaves off a lot of content from the previous games despite being in a better game engine.
- I know it’s a staple of the series, but this game really has an absurd plot. Who knew that having sex could lead to pregnancy?! Whaaaa?!
- Considering it’s an end to the Kiryu saga, a lot of characters built up over the games are forgotten and delegated to EXTREMELY minor roles. Sad to see, but I heard they have bigger roles in Yakuza: Like A Dragon so I can’t wait to play it.
This is my least-liked game in the series overall. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad game, but if I had to choose between playing Yakuza 3 or yakuza 6, I would choose Okinawa Daddy Kiryu any day. Plot-wise a very solid game, but it just lacks a bit of the side-stuff that I really enjoy from the series.

Old game, same old Kiryu, and somehow still ridiculously fun. Great story, peak Yakuza nonsense, hilarious side quests, and street fights that feel more like stress relief than actual combat.

Probably the easiest Yakuza I’ve played, but watching Kiryu turn every thug into a walking punching bag never gets old.