Yakuza’s resident protagonist Kazuma Kiryu may be a well-known in the underworld as one of the most formidable Yakuza, but in truth he is a very good man. Most of the plot points throughout the series has him not be a Yakuza man, solving Yakuza problems and helping out some random people around town.
And this is what makes Yakuza so fascinating- the series has miraculously balance the serious melodrama of the main plot with the zany tone of its side quests, referred to as substories. Just strolling about to your next main story beat proves challenging because not of the random encounters of enemies, but there are great side quests to uncover and be distracted to.
But what makes them so great?
For the sake of argument, let’s look at Yakuza Kiwami, the recent remake of the original PS2 release.
Spoilers on several substories of Yakuza Kiwami begins here.
Yakuza Kiwami’s substories act like normal side-quests seen in RPGs or open world action games, some of the things you do are literally fetch quests and a lot of them is just about beating people up, something you do a lot in the game. But what seals the deal is how they are delivered.
The substories serves as a counter-balance to the ever serious and ominous main plot where the political struggles within the ranks of the Tojo Clan is the main draw. These substories have a slight hint of goofiness to them, despite being mostly grounded in real life. Help someone get some random stranger, deal with petty con artists’ scams, get roped into something you should not be in. Get someone some toilet paper. You know, things that could happen to you and me.
But most of them end in good fun, and along the way, has a good moral lesson to impart.
It sounds like filler content, but the charming writing will get you invested with whatever protagonist Kazuma Kiryu is involved in. Sure, that intimidating face and fierce gaze is a dead giveaway of him being a yakuza man, but he’s a yakuza with a heart of gold.
In an interview to get a job at a “banana club”, to dodge the question of his prior experience (he spent time in jail, not something you would say at an interviewer), one of the choices led Kiryu imparting this golden advice.
A lot of the substories end with a moral-of-the-story punchline. After helping out someone getting toilet papers, Kiryu bemuses about the importance of preparing for any circumstances.
As mentioned earlier, Kiryu’s looks alone has caused him to get roped into trouble, but that led to Kiryu teaching this man to not judge a book by its cover, which led to more book puns throughout the substory.
This weird encounter with two scamming siblings made him remind them that regardless to whatever do they identify as, scammers deserve a beatdown.
To those that drink, remember to drink responsibly.
And it’s not life if you don’t face problems once in a while.
Some of these advices can work out of context as well, perfect for tweets by the Video Game Advisor.
Yakuza is a series that is deeply rooted to Japan and its culture, which has been the issue of it not being as popular in the West. But recently there is enough support from the English audience to localise the series, which explains the rapid release of Yakuza 5 on the PS3 in 2016, Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami last year and Yakuza 6 coming this April.
The localisation team has worked wonders making the games stick closely with the source material while still having a flair of its own. The substories feel urgent that you want to be involve in and see it through. The stories themselves are mostly light-hearted but are all well thought-out. While I am not of fan of puns in general, some of them are used to great effect.
But most importantly, it helps establish Kiryu. Throughout the main plot he has done things out of kindness, putting his friends first before his own self need, maybe too selfless, which is how he gets roped into the many conspiracies and ploys of the yakuza for 7 games already. Him stopping by to give a drunkard a beer or intervene a what seems to be a man forcing himself on a woman is exactly what something Kiryu would do. As out-of-place as the tone of the substories can be to the main plot, it further enforces who you are playing as: a yakuza with a heart of gold. Which is why Yakuza’s substories can be chock-full of good moral lessons.
Yakuza’s substories are not that interesting mechanically, but the draw is how it is told. The odd tonality (and why it works so well here) has been explored by Hamish Black of Writing On Games, so be sure to check out that video here.