Yakuza Dead Souls

Back in the 2010’s the Zombie craze was in full effect. People were playing Nazi zombies and watching AMC’s The Walking Dead. It was basically out with the Twilight vampires and in with the undead. It was everywhere. So when we heard in 2011 that Yakuza were set to release a quintessential Yakuza title but with zombies. We were both completely flabbergasted and somehow unsurprised with this weird turn of events. So, let’s turn back to clock and see how this panned out in our review of Yakuza: Dead Souls.

This game plays much like other games within the long running Yakuza series. However, looking outside the franchise, this also plays like games such as Ryū Ga Gotoku Ishin, Max Payne, Watchdogs, Dying Light, GTA5 and Sleeping Dogs. This game aimed to add yet another layer of crazy to the Yakuza stores and see what stuck. So, let’s have a look, shall we.

Taking Combat Out of Your Hands

The combat within the Yakuza series has always focused on heavy hand to hand fighting. Street brawls and martial arts were the order of the day and fans loved it. So, the decision to take this all away in favour of clunky shooting mechanics was a very poor choice. The combat is stilted and hard to master and even when you do, it’s certainly not fun. We get that you can’t go fair digs with an undead creature but if you are going to shake-up the format in this way, you need to do it with more care. On the flipside though, in the early stages of the game when the zombie angle is less of a concern, the gameplay is quintessentially Yakuza with mini games, trips to the city and of course, karaoke to take part in. In these moments, the game shines and the story is fine for the most part too. It’s just those pesky zombies that come in and spoil the fun.

Artificial Difficulty

When a game’s combat is poorly designed and the game focuses heavily on combat, this is a recipe for disaster. This is most prevalent in the boss battles. This game has players fight hulking zombie variants with health regeneration, hordes of minions and don’t even get us started on the camera angles. Players will fail these stages time and time again. However, often not through any fault of their own. This basically asks the player to repeat the same actions expecting a different result. The definition of insanity according to a well-known video game villain if we do recall correctly.

The Verdict

Overall, this game is example of how even the most wacky and zany titles can take things too far. While Yakuza has freedom to take the series anywhere it wants, it has to remain on brand and fun for the fan base.

Pros:

• Setting and visuals are as pleasant as ever
• The mini games and early game content aren’t too bad

Cons:

• Everything relating to zombies was a swing and a miss
• Combat is nothing short of abysmal
• Camera angles are very frustrating