PART THREE, CHAPTER TWO - A MOTHER'S LOVE Haruka wakes to thirteen substories and a text from Akari about a dance battle. In contrast with Kiryu, the very same photo of she, he and the kids has pride of place on her dresser.
This is very likely the most immersive section in any of the Yakuza games. And the substories pick up right where the story left off.
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Haruka's schedule is very much in keeping with this immensely immersive chapter. Doing everything an Idol does. Beginning with fan events like meet 'n greets.
PART THREE, first half - HARUKA Back to the present, Haruka, now sixteen, dances herself to exhaustion in a Sotenbori studio. Where she's in the final of the local idol contest the Princess League. Just a week away.
Straight to the action, it's dance-practise time for us too. Something like a more-complex karaoke: timing based and it wouldn't be Yakuza without heat, no matter what we're up to. Much like our first fight as the previous protagonists, this affords us our first soul orbs to level-up. Difference being, Haruka's a dancer not a fighter. PART THREE - PROLOGUE Flashback eighteen months, from 2012 and the snow of Hokkaido to summertime Okinawa.
Kiryu sits with a stern woman who met Haruka last week in a bookstore and wants to make her a star. Problem is, fans these days want to know everything about celebs. And being raised by a former Tojo chairman wouldn't play. He has to go. '... not leaving, not a chance' interrupts the Dragon. As an eavesdropping Haruka seems almost pleased. The woman persists, continuing upon a theme: 'this (orphanage) is where dreams come to die' and that as a failed former Idol, Haruka can 'pick up the torch' of her own dream. To cut it short: the woman offers to help pay all the other kids' living expenses, help them thrive and make Haruka a star. Kiryu can no longer refuse. You might even say he gives up his own dream to help those in his care seek theirs. part two, chapter four - about damn time Snow is falling, lights are on the trees, and Taiga Saejima's just broken out of prison and murdered a bear.
More importantly, there's the matter of Goro Majima. Our deceased sworn brother. A twist introduced at the end of Kiryu's section. Which seems a very long time ago. PART two, Chapter three - the mountain Waking in a simple log cabin, Taiga Saejima guzzles the stew offered by his host Okudera, who sets off to find the still-missing Baba. Time to explore the village.
Remote and smothered in snow, the only road to town is currently closed. Giving us no option other than to head up the mountain after Okudera. Who isn't popular among the locals, an outsider found in the woods a decade ago. As with cabaret clubs, this takes up enough room to require its own section. While the pursuit of a murderous bear on a snowy mountain makes one wonder which year the Revenant came out.
Everything from meat, furs, pelts and bile, yes bile, can be sold. Get it while it's fresh. Hunting itself is easy: track quietly, aim for the head. We can purchase various traps to place around the mountain to do our work for us. The whole 'spend money to make money' thing applies here. Litter the mountainside with traps and we'll be rewarded. And build huts to warm up and recover our health, which the cold eats away at whenever we're outside. Though improved gear limits these losses (see image below). It's also comfortably the easiest way to make money in the entire game. Shown by the task of selling 1,000,000 yen's merchandise to the hunting shop. Though a non-completionist may want to hang on to said skins and furs until reaching Tsukimino. Where the pawn shop pays 25% extra. PART TWO, CHAPTER TWO - ESCAPE Taiga Saejima's been expelled from the Tojo.
After all he's done for them. He finds this out via deputy warden Kosaka, silver lining being that Kosaka's now put in for Saejima's parole; a dejected Taiga turns it down. PART TWO, CHAPTER ONE - HOKKAIDO Fast-forward to December 2012 and Saejima's in a snow-covered prison in Hokkaido, conveniently in the same region his sworn brother Majima's about to be murdered.
PART TWO - TAIGA SAEJIMA Back a couple of years, Saejima chows down with a dead man. He's heading back to jail. Though the reasoning's vague - he promised Kiryu he'd sort out the Tojo and can handle another year or two inside.
A lot of food related metaphors ensue as Taiga perks up a mopey Majima by comparing them to tripe: the longer in the fire, the better it gets. With him in jail, Majima'll have to look after the 'young chef' (Daigo) because the guys around him are uncooked. Post-meal, Saejima sets off for one last walk before agreeing to meet Majima at the batting centre - where else - before being scooped up by the cops. |
AuthorNothing better than relaxing with a good game. Particularly one with great characters and a story to match. Hence my love for the Yakuza series. Archives
May 2023
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