Yakuza 6: The Song of Lifewas initially released in Japan back in 2016, before releasing worldwide two years later. The game is the final entry in Kiryu’s story arc chronologically, with the recently releasedYakuza: Like A Dragontaking the series in a new direction.
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As one would expect with the final entry of a character’s story arc,The Song of Lifehas a more serious tone than most otherentries in the series. However, there is still a handful ofbizarre, nonsensical, and utterly hilarious substories, something that theYakuzaseries has become known and beloved for over the years.
8The Curse Of Onomichi
TheYakuzaseries has never been afraid to head in nonsensical directions that don’t fit the franchise’s themes but The Curse of Onomichi takes it to a whole new level. The substory begins in a normal way, with Kiryu getting involved in yet another fight. However, things soon take a turn for the worst as the protagonist’s walk through the graveyard sees him being ambushed by what he believes is a ghost. It turns out that he’s partly correct, though they aren’t just any ghosts, they’re pirate ghosts.
There aren’t many games that would introduce pirate ghosts as canon in the last chronological entry of a character’s story arc, though the Yakuza series certainly isn’t like most games.
7I, Hiji
A common theme ofYakuza 6is Kiryu struggling to keep up with modern changes in technology, particularly with his smartphone. So, when a stranger on the street offers to download an app for him, Kiryu doesn’t see any warning signs and agrees, despite the man seeming to be a bit too enthralled by the app’s female voice.
Kiryu downloads the personal assistant app and starts being sweet-talked by it in a children’s park, of all places. After the app tricks Kiryu into fighting a drunkard, he decides it’s time to uninstall it. However, this proves to be trickier than first intended, as the app convinces another man to steal Kiryu’s phone. Once Kiryu and the app installer reach the thief, they all have a bizarre,Black Mirror-like heart-to-heart about how they fell for the female voice of an app.
6A Freaky Situation
By this point in his life, Kiryu has likely just accepted the fact that he can’t walk down the street without getting dragged into some sort of mess. So, when he sees two people take a nasty fall down some stairs, he probably isn’t too shocked.
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However, A Freaky Situation lives up to its name by taking a bizarre turn, as the pair who fell say that they’ve switched bodies. After mass confusion, it’s revealed that the couple lied as an elaborate scheme to stop an overbearing parent from breaking the couple up, a reference tothe filmYour Name.
5Runaway Robot
Another substory that sees Kiryu being perplexed by technology is Runaway Robot. The protagonist bumps into a man named Fujita, who tells Kiryu that his cleaning robot just ran off with his engagement ring. Kiryu is disappointed to learn that the device is similar to a Roomba rather than something like RoboCop, but agrees to help Fujita nonetheless.
Kiryu chases the robot all over the city before finding it trying to vacuum up some uncleaned thugs, while very loudly repeating “dirt detected” over and over again. Thankfully, the substory ends on a positive note, as Kiryu awkwardly watches on as the Fujita melodramatically proposes to his girlfriend.
4Oh No! It’s Ono Michio!
One thing thatYakuzafans had come to accept about Kiryu byYakuza 6: The Song of Lifeis that he’s very inquisitive, often to his detriment as it continuously lands him in sticky situations. So, when Kiryu stumbles across a large cartoony mascot head, most players could tell where the substory “Oh No! It’s Ono Michio!” was going.
Sure enough, Kiryu gets guilt-tripped into wearing the ridiculous costume after its intended wearer ran away. Kiryu does his best to entertain the numerous excited children before some local thugs come to complain about the noise. In true Kiryu fashion, he doesn’t back down from the fight and beats up the group of thugs while in costume like some sort of low-budget superhero.
3Follow That Drone!
Runaway Robot isn’t the only substory on this list that features Kiryu having to chase technology around the city, as Follow That Drone! does exactly what it says on the tin, forcing players to run around trying to catch a drone that is attacking people.
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AYakuzasubstory wouldn’t be complete without Kiryu having to win a fight against the odds, so when he reaches the drone, he must beat down a group of Yakuzawho are harassing the drone’s pilot. It turns out, that the drone’s owner was using the device to attract someone strong who would follow it and then protect them from the threatening Yakuza, like some sort of futuristic version of fishing.
2The Temptation of Live Chat
As the name The Temptation of Live Chat suggests, the aforementioned I, Hiji isn’t the only substory that sees someone getting in trouble for app addiction. After a man is dumped by his girlfriend, Kiryu goes to check if he’s okay. Unsurprisingly, Kiryu is confused by the concept of Live Chat, and initially thinks it could be a room full of kittens.
The dumped man quickly gets over his issues and perks up as soon as Kiryu starts enquiring about the service. The substory then gets even more strange when Kiryu agrees to try Live Chat with the man at a net cafe. Kiryu then delivers some of the most hilariously awkward flirting ever seen to a woman on Live Chat, though it seems to go down well, as the woman starts giving the guys a very non-child-friendly show.
It may have seemed that the substory was going to consist of Kiryu helping the couple get back together, though it ends with the dumped man over the moon, saying that he doesn’t need a girlfriend if he has Live Chat as she would just “cut down on my Live Chat time.”
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In yet another substory that sees Kiryu struggling to understand modern trends, the protagonist comes across a man with a selfie stick, trying to get his fifteen minutes of fame. When Kiryu first encounters the guy, he’s desperately trying to film and interview Yakuza for his show “Kamurocho Yakuza, Up Close and Personal,” a dangerous idea that Kiryu warns him about.
After seemingly deciding that the interview idea wasn’t stupid enough, Kiryu finds the guy standing in a batting cage, telling his audience how much it hurts to be hit by a baseball at varying speeds.
The third and final time that Kiryu crosses paths with the hopeful influencer, it seems that he’s finally got what’s coming to him as a Yakuza is dangling him out of a window. However, after being pulled back inside, he’s delighted as he caught the whole thing on camera, and thinks it will get him a million views. That is until Kiryu and the Yakuza beat up the guy and film a video of their own titled “An Annoying Punk Apologizes For Everything.”
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