When Akiyama’s not giving out money or training up whores hostesses he’s generally kicking ass. The characters all have different fighting styles. Don’t worry he’s sent the orphans on holiday at least. Going into details would lead to spoilers so *zip*. Series star, Kazuma is the final character and will crop up throughout the game. His story is based on looking for the truth about his father, a murdered cop. Tanimura is a young cop who likes to gamble (hello Casino minigames) and has a multi-cultured background that makes him able to speak most Asian languages, which opens a few extra areas of the city for him.

He’s not particularly interesting himself but his assassin hit of ‘85 is shown with a stylish cutscene that is easily one of the coolest of the entire series. Will you waste hours of your life doing it? Probably. Not only can you be a client, but you can train up the girls to perform better and earn more money. Series fans were bitter to see the hostess aspects cut from the UK version of Y3, but they’re back in full now. He’s an unusual type, a golden-hearted loan-shark without the predatory bite. The first part of the game puts you in the shoes of Akiyama, a money-lender who tasks his clients with passing strange tests before he’ll lend them the cash. Each of them also has a different fighting style and access to some exclusive character-specific minigames and side-quests. Unlike the past games you’ll be playing as four different characters, each of whom has their own storylines although their paths occasionally cross. But hell, Yakuza 3 was a pretty damn awesome beat em’ up adventure game and we won’t be seeing the Kamurocho walking dead anytime soon so let’s just try and enjoy it.

It can be a bit of a tough sell trying to get pumped up for Yakuza 4, seeing as it’s been out in Japan for a year and they’re getting close to the release of the zombie-packed sequel Yakuza of the End.

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